Mulayam, Ajit Sink Differences

The coming together of the two leaders of Uttar Pradesh even before the formal announcement of the seat-sharing among the United Front, to which Singh's fledgling Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar Party is a new entrant, signals that the two leaders have sunk their differences after seven years.

Mulayam Singh and Ajit Singh held discussions regarding the rally and seat-sharing in the morning yesterday and subsequently, the former left for Lucknow. The two leaders are to resume talks on seat-sharing today.

Leaders involved in talks, several rounds of which have been held so far within the Samajwadi Party and with other Front partners, disclosed that Ajit Singh had scaled down his claim for seat-sharing from 83 (the list submitted by him to the Front before he quit the Congress) to 40 constituencies. One of Mulayam Singh's close associates said that the defence minister could ultimately agree to give the Jat leader anything between 22 and 25 seats.

However, while Ajit Singh would probably have no qualms in accepting this figure, it is the Janata Dal which is unable to come to terms with Mulayam Singh despite several rounds of discussions between the SP, Dal and others. Now that Ajit Singh has quit the Congress even before the finalisation of seat-sharing, he is left with no option but to take what he is offered.

Sources said Mulayam Singh was determined that the SP contests up to 300 seats. In this dispensation, the SP could leave only about 40 to 45 seats for the Dal, 35 to 40 seats for the Congress(T), 15 seats for the two Left parties and upto 25 seats for Ajit's party.

Dal leaders say the party would not settle for anything less than 100 seats. We can make a concession of 10 seats to this figure, but only if Mulayam gives us the seats of our choice, said a Dal leader who has been involved in the negotiations

The Congress(T) is asking for 125 seats and they would also not accept a figure of 35 to 40 seats easily.

Significantly, SP leaders are giving a lot of importance to the entry of Ajit Singh as the new partner for UP polls. The Bahujan Samaj Party-Congress alliance will be rendered irrelevant in western UP with this new alliance, says SP general secretary KC Tyagi.

Tyagi said the United Front was the most potent force to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party in most of the seats in western UP, with the entry of the BKKP in the UF. He added that in western UP, the BJP had swept the 1993 assembly elections by winning 100 of the 125 seats. Then, western UP contributed to more than half of the BJP's tally 177. But the BJP is in for a shock this time, said Tyagi.

Tyagi's assessment of western UP is, perhaps, the guiding reason why Mulayam Singh has, in the last few days, turned soft towards Ajit and agreed to accommodate him in seat-sharing.

The SP itself does not have much of a presence in most of the assembly seats in western UP and without Ajit's party, the contest would have been essentially between the BJP and the BSP-Congress.

But this scenario may change as Ajit's castemen, the Jats, are a factor in Meerut, Moradabad and Agra divisions which account for about 100 seats. It is to be seen whether the Jats, most of whom have thrown their lot behind the BJP in the last few years, switch their loyalty for this new political alignment.