The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Sindhia to campaign for Obama

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Monday, Jun 30, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Sindhia to campaign for Obama

K.V. Subramanya

Former Minister not to join any party for the next six months

BANGALORE: The former minister P.G.R. Sindhia, who has been removed from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), has decided not to join any political party for the next six months. Instead, he is to leave soon leave for the United States to campaign for Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama in the U.S. Presidential polls.

Mr. Sindhia told The Hindu on Sunday that as he was a fan of the Democratic Party, he had informed the party in advance that he would campaign for Mr. Obama. “I will be addressing meetings of the Indian community in the U.S. for two weeks during July and August to seek votes for Mr. Obama. My itinerary will be finalised in a couple of days,” he said and emphasised that his visit to America was planned almost seven months ago.

Mr. Sindhia said that in case of early elections to the Lok Sabha, he would cut short his U.S. trip and return to India to plan his future political course.

Asked whether he planned to join any other political party in view of his removal from the BSP, Mr. Sindhia said that he had kept all his options open though he had decided not to associate himself with any party for the next six months.

To tour the state

Later, he would tour the entire State, ascertain the views of his supporters and decide on his next political move.

“Nearly 150 of the 220-odd BSP candidates who contested the recent Assembly elections are my supporters. I have to safeguard their future too,” he said.

Mr. Sindhia, who is groping in the dark to ascertain the reasons for his summary expulsion from BSP, said he would “not take things lying down” and would remain active in politics. He said he would finalise his political plans in consultations with two other expelled BSP leaders, Sudhir Sawanth of Maharashtra and Omkar Singh of Uttar Pradesh. He claimed that he had supporters even in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

“The BSP had not issued me an order appointing me as the party’s national general secretary. It has also not served me a notice expelling me from the party. I am trying to find out through my own sources, what led to my removal,” Mr. Sindhia said.

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