Various organisations of Uttar Pradesh government employees have joined hands to contest the Assembly elections in the state.
The newly-formed Lok Karamchari Morcha (LKM) will field candidates in all the nine constituencies of Lucknow and at least one in other districts of the state. The candidates, however, would contest as Independents.
Since serving government employees cannot contest elections, those desirous of contesting the polls will take voluntary retirement from service. “We also have a large number of retired government servants in our organisations and many of them are keen to contest. We will support them as our candidates,’ said a LKM spokesman.
The LKM comprises over a dozen employees’ associations from different sectors including power, banks, railways and other state government departments like education and health.
The LKM has the backing of nearly 17 lakh employees, a number that is sufficient to drift a chunk of votes and change political equations. The Morcha will field nine candidates in Lucknow, which is largely dominated by government officials.
According to Girish Pandey of Hind Mazdoor Sabha, the LKM will field 70 candidates across the state. The Morcha has decided to field J.N. Tiwari, a leader of Rajya Karamchari Sanyukt Parishad from the newly carved out Rampur Karkhana constituency in Deoria district.
Mr A.P. Singh of Bank Employees’ Joint Forum said that the Morcha stands to fight corruption, which has attained huge proportions. “We will support candidates having a clean image and we will support candidates irrespective of their party affiliation in constituencies where we do not have our own candidate,” he said.
Mr Shailendra Dubey, general secretary of All-India Power Engineers’ Association, said that the LKM would also motivate people to exercise their franchise. “Bhrashtachsar ka ek nidaan, sau pratishat matdaan” is our motto. We believe that people can change the scene by voting in large numbers and also instil an element of fear among candidate who will think twice before indulging in corruption,” he explained.
Members of LKM are equally keen to demolish the public perception about government officials and employees being corrupt.
“We are blamed because a handful among us is corrupt. We want to tell the people that not every government employee is corrupt,” said Mr Shiv Gopal Misra, national general secretary of All India Railway Men’s Federation.