The Hindu : New Delhi News : New Poorvanchal outfit can hurt Congress and BJP in Capital

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 04, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

New Poorvanchal outfit can hurt Congress and BJP in Capital

Sujay Mehdudia

Organisation is likely to gain strength with the presence of former PM Chandra Shekhar and NCP leader Bidhuri

NEW DELHI: The failure of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party to give adequate representation to the Capital's substantial Poorvanchal community in the overall share of power and political set-up has resulted in formation of the new Poorvanchal Kranti Sangh.

The non-political outfit is due to be launched on Friday and this is not good news for the Congress as well as the BJP, especially in view of other parties also joining hands to be part of this new power centre.

Political observers here are of the view that people from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and parts of West Bengal have not got a fair deal over the years in Delhi politics despite having a large presence and being in a position to influence the outcome of electoral results in nearly 50 Delhi Assembly constituencies.

Both the BJP and Congress are guilty of "deliberately'' sidelining the Poorvanchal leaders who could find a new voice in this new outfit that is being floated by "rebel'' BJP leaders who are learnt to have the blessings of certain senior BJP leaders too. The outfit is likely to gain strength with the presence of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and Nationalist Congress Party MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who has been a strong proponent of a Third Front in Delhi.

Although the BJP had made the Poorvanchal leader Lal Bihari Tiwari a minister in its Government in Delhi and later on he represented the East Delhi constituency in Parliament, his acceptability among the Poorvanchal community always remained suspect.

On the other hand, the Congress has preferred to sideline Poorvanchal leaders and has kept them away from the power centre thus denying them the space in the political spectrum.

Experts are of the view that Poorvanchal leaders are being purposely kept away by the Delhi leaders, as they fear that their projection would lead to their marginalisation in the political scenario.

However, the coming together of former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana, former Union Minister Shatrughan Sinha and former MP Kirti Azad to form this outfit certainly does not augur well for the BJP in the Capital and elsewhere.

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