By Mohit Dubey, IANS,
Lucknow : In a stunning admission a day before vote count, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rajnath Singh admitted Monday that his party may not be able to form a government in Uttar Pradesh.
“The results will be bright for the BJP, there is no doubt about it. We fought to get a majority. But candidly speaking, it appears we might fall short of the numbers required to form the government,” the former chief minister told IANS.
This is the first candid public admission by any BJP leader that it may not be able to take office in the country’s most populous state where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held sway for years.
The millions of votes cast in Uttar Pradesh along with those polled in Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur will be counted in these five states Tuesday.
Most exit polls after the close of Uttar Pradesh’s seven-phased balloting have predicted that the BJP would finish third in the four-horse race, behind the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The polls gave the BJP more seats than the Congress.
Rajnath Singh, 60, a former party president, said while the BJP was set to improve its tally in the 403-member assembly, it would fall short of the half-way mark.
Asked about the possibility of the BJP aligning with the BSP or Samajwadi Party to form a coalition government, Rajnath Singh ruled out such conjectures.
“The BJP has all along maintained that there will be no truck with any party, neither before the polls nor after.”
Rajnath Singh insisted that the record setting high voting in Uttar Pradesh was undoubtedly a “definite booster for the party’s prospects in UP”.
He attributed the successful voter turnout to campaigns by social activist Anna Hazare, spiritual guru Ravi Shankar and yoga guru Baba Ramdev.
Asked if corruption was a major campaign issue for voters, he said it was “important but not a major” issue.
Rajnath Singh, who began his carrer as a physics lecturer, joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a teenager. He was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh from October 2000 to March 2002.
He became the BJP president in 2005, and was succeeded by incumbent Nitin Gadkari in 2009.
Rajnath Singh is known to be ranged against senior party colleague and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti, who ran the BJP campaign in Uttar Pradesh.
He admitted that the BJP’s decision to admit tainted BSP leader Babu Singh Kushwaha ahead of the election harmed his party.
“I can safely say the entry of Kushwaha did not help us.”
As for possible damage, he said it would be assessed after the election results became known.