Lucknow: Claiming that the party's `Nyay Yatra' against criminalisation of politics was a huge success, the BJP in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday announced that the programme would be intensified from January next year.

``The campaign will be as intense as the Ayodhya and Jaiprakash movements in the past and would mark the end of Samajwadi Party-led coalition in UP,'' senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon told reporters here.

The Yatra, launched in the wake of party MLA Krishnanand Rai's killing in Ghazipur on November 29, was led by BJP national general secretary Rajnath Singh and hailed by the organisation as a grand success in east Uttar Pradesh.

Considering the `enormous' mass support it received in east U.P., the BJP would extend it to the western region as well and oppose the entry of criminals in politics, he asserted.

Mr Tandon said criminals ruled the roost in various political outfits especially the SP. ``BJP would take the lead in flushing out criminals from politics.''

The senior BJP leader said the party was bound to stage a comeback in U.P. as both political opponents -- SP and Mayawati-led BSP -- were ``hallmarks of corruption.''

To a question, Mr Tandon said the SP would have to go, but BSP would be an even worse alternative in power. ``BJP considers both SP and BSP as corrupt parties and two sides of the same coin.''

He went to the extent of dubbing BSP as a mere `pressure group' represented by a particular section of society. ``It is wrong to describe BSP as a political party.''

When reminded that the BJP had an alliance with BSP in the State on two occasions, he observed it was a matter of choice of the `lesser evil'.

Moreover, he said, whatever development U.P. had seen during Mayawati's regime was due to the BJP pressure.

Mr Tandon, also the Leader of the Opposition in the UP Assembly, replied in negative when asked if the BJP intended to raise the issue of acquisition of properties by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his kin as published by a leading national English daily on Monday.

``We will not raise the matter as it is pending in the Supreme Court,'' he said. -- UNI

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