The Hindu : INLD to go it alone in Lok Sabha elections

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004

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Other States - Rajasthan

INLD to go it alone in Lok Sabha elections

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, FEB. 7. The Indian National Lok Dal leader, Ajay Singh Chautala today said the party would go it alone in the coming Lok Sabha elections. It would keep an equal distance from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress and try to prove its own identity in the States of Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, he said.

Mr.Chautala, accompanied by the president of Haryana INLD, Sher Singh Badsami and the Rajasthan chief, Jainarain Punia, told newspersons at the Pink City Press Club here today that there were no signs of "feel good'' anywhere in the country expect in the eyes of those in the BJP. In the previous Lok Sabha polls too his party had fought independently of other political parties, he noted.

When asked by the mediapersons whether negotiations were still on with the BJP, Mr.Chautala said dismissively, "it is final. We are fighting the elections on our own''. However insisted that INLD was still a part of the National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP it considered the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the "undisputed leader of the country''.

The INLD leader, son of the Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, gave a hint about the relationship between his party and the BJP in his home State when he charged the local leadership of the other party with loose talk.

"We cannot anymore tolerate the language used by the BJP leaders in the State. We are left with no other option,'' he said. He also hinted that the party workers were not keen on aligning with the BJP in Haryana or elsewhere. Yet he was rather positive about the party's relationship with NDA. "We don't have any bitterness. Our experience with NDA is neither bad or good,'' he noted.

Mr. Chautala, who addressed party leaders from Rajasthan here during the day said both in Haryana and Rajasthan the INLD would fight all the Lok Sabha seats while in States like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar the local units would decide soon. The elections would be fought on the plank of development. "This is the only issue public would give an ear to,'' he asserted.

An elevator at the Press Club, gifted by Om Prakash Chautala, prior to the Assembly elections in the State, was inaugurated by Ajay Singh. Mr.Punia on the occasion announced the appointment of Hanuman Beniwal, former president of the Rajasthan University Students Union as the chief of the youth wing of the party here.

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