PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN

STOCKTAKING: The former U.P. Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh, arrives for the executive meeting of the Samajwadi Party in New Delhi on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: The Samajwadi Party lost the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls but its voter base remains intact at more than 25 per cent of the total votes polled. This was emphasised at the party's national executive committee meeting here on Sunday.

The party leadership promised to continue to work for the people of the State, struggle with the people and be there to help them in all their troubles.

"Our party has decided to see how this new Government [led by Mayawati] works for the first six months of its tenure. We are certain that by that time matters will be out of control," a party resolution released here by general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said.

The three-page resolution alleged that the Election Commission had turned the State into a fortress. Ordinary people were afraid to go to the polling booths to cast their vote. Those who ventured were denied their right, as some of them did not have voter card or any other identity proof. The result was that the State registered the poorest voter turnout in decades, the resolution said.

Over 70,000 security men were deployed in the State during the elections; more than 1,500 officers from other States were on duty; the model code of conduct was enforced three months ahead of polling and district and police officers were changed on a large scale, the resolution said.

The SP alleged that the Centre had hatched a plan to ensure a fractured mandate so that it could rule the State through President's rule for a year. The Centre, it alleged, sent handpicked officers to the State to help it in this plan.

The party said when Punjab and Rajasthan were burning on different issues for a week, with many people getting killed and crores of rupees worth property damaged, the Centre neither threatened to impose President's rule nor talked about breakdown of law and order. On the contrary, during its rule the threat of President's Rule was constantly hanging on its head.

The party said it had kept "casteist forces" at bay, but those forces (the BSP) have found their way to power in the midst of the battle between the "communal forces" (the BJP) and the "capitalist forces" (the Congress). It claimed that the law and order situation in the State was worse now.

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