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Naidu will do a Jayalalitha on Vajpayee: Mayawati

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati today said that the success of the Samajwadi Party in the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh was largely due to the support from Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and a section of the media.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow she said the SP had gained in the state not due to the personal efforts of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav but due to the use of government machinery to help the SP candidates in various constituencies.

''Had [Kalyan] Singh not supported the SP in the state, the latter would have ended up at third position behind the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party,'' Mayawati said.

There was clear evidence that Kalyan Singh had instructed his officials to support the SP candidates instead of those from the BJP, she added.

''I have definite information that Sakshi Maharaj, who had resigned from the BJP after he was denied a ticket from the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha seat and campaigned in the favour of SP candidates, had full support from Kalyan Singh,'' she claimed. She added that ''even his [Sakshi Maharaj's] tour arrangements were done at the behest of the chief minister who provided him with a helicopter.''

The firebrand BSP leader also alleged that a section of press, both print and electronic, had played a role in spreading mis- information against her party.

Mayawati said the tacit understanding between Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kalyan Singh was no more a secret and the losing BJP candidates were now vocal about it. ''The issue is bound to be raised by BJP leaders at the national level after installation of its government at the Centre,'' she said.

She said that her party had raised its seat tally from four to 14 in the state and that too without the support of any other party or leader. She alleged that in at least three constituencies, namely Basti Res, Fatehpur and Misrikh (reserved), BSP candidates were deliberately defeated by the district election officers even though they were winning.

The BSP leader said her party would have won at least 20 seats if the SP had not been provided support by the state machinery.

Mayawati alleged that the media had played a role in spreading false information about her party candidates withdrawing from the electoral field specially in Amethi, Lucknow and Kanpur.

The BSP leader was of the opinion that Uttar Pradesh was heading for assembly elections soon. She also believed that in the next assembly election, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kalyan Singh would be together. In reply to a question, she said her party favoured early assembly elections.

Casting doubts over the longevity of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led- National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre, Mayawati said what Jayalalitha had done to it last time, Chandrababu Naidu will do this time. She said a party with 29 MPs supporting from outside is bound to have a hidden agenda. ''Vajpayee may evolve many formulas but the life of his government is not long,'' she said.

UNI

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