India: Mandir or Mandal, Mr Rajnath Singh?

INTERESTING time are ahead in the political arena of Uttar Pradesh with all the 102 Samajwadi party MLAs resigning en masse on Tuesday.

This decision was obviously taken by the Samajwadi Party chief, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, to force the BJP Government's hand in dissolving the House and holding elections by October 2001, something the Opposition has been demanding.

Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav's decision might have been influenced by the results of the recent C-voter/Pioneer poll survey, which shows the BJP and the SP neck-to-neck. The survey says that if elections are held in UP today, the BJP and the SP can get between 125 and 145 seats each, and that the BSP would be a third, with 76 to 96 seats. It is shocking and a little difficult to believe that the Congress(I) would only end up with 18-38 seats. But, then, the faction-ridden UP unit of the party does not have a single charismatic leader who can claim to have a large following. In the present UP Assembly, and minus the MLAs who went to Uttaranchal, the BJP has 158 MLAs.

Interestingly, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav is a close second to Mr Rajnath Singh in the choice for the Chief …