SP, BSP jittery about Hazare’s UP campaign
As the social activist Anna Hazare sets out on nationwide campaign against corruption from Varanasi this Friday, the ruling BSP and Samajwadi Party in UP are already getting jittery. Though the BSP and SP are arch-rivals, the two parties apprehend that Mr Hazare’s campaign can polarise voters especially the youth against them in the run up to the next year’s Assembly election.
The SP camp is already factoring in the impact of Mr Hazare’s campaign and is making all efforts not to field any tainted candidate in the next year’s poll. The SP UP state chief Akhilesh Yadav in a bid to prove the point that the party has nothing to do with criminals is bringing forth people with clean image to contest the election.
However, senior SP leaders are of the view that the frontal attack by the camp of Anna Hazare on people facing corruption charges can hurt the party prospect as the party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has been fighting disproportionate assets case in the SC for a long time. Anna Hazare will kick-start his nationwide campaign against corruption from Varanasi this Friday and will tour UP for three days in the company of former IPS official Kiran Bedi, RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal and social activist Swami Agnivesh.
The UP chief minister Mayawati has already played the dalit card in anticipation that Mr Hazare’s campaign would have political ramifications in the state in the run up to the state election next year. Senior BSP functionaries admitted that the party is making efforts to improve the government’s image amid charges of deteriorating law and order situation in the state. “What we have seen during the four day long fast unto death of Anna Hazare in Delhi, the youth in UP may get swayed by his campaign in the state, which could disturb the social engineering of the BSP,” added the BSP functionary.
Though the BSP leaders maintain that the party has full backing of the 26 per cent Dalit voters, the Brahmin voters might start looking for other political options if Anna Hazare’s campaign gathers support in the state.
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