No clear winner for India polls
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP supreme Mayawati has flagged her prime ministerial ambitions ahead of the penultimate round of staggered Indian parliamentary elections slated for today.
Addressing an election rally in Agra, the Taj Mahal city, on Tuesday night at the fag end of the deadline of the campaign for the fourth round of voting, Mayawati said if Congress chief Sonia Gandhi can bring someone like Manmohan Singh to Parliament through the "back door" and make him the Prime Minister, "why can't an educated daughter of a Dalit like me, who has won several elections and is the Chief Minister of the country's biggest state, become the PM?"
She said Manmohan Singh has till date not contested any election (he is a member of Rajya Sabha). Sonia Gandhi has brought him through back door by getting him elected to Rajya Sabha."
Mayawati also attacked Sonia for her sarcastic remark made at a recent poll rally that nowadays everybody wants to become PM.
While other politicians whose name have sufraced for the post of PM are yet to respond to Sonia's remarks, Mayawati hit back at the Congress President and asked her party supporters to come out in large number to ensure victory of party candidates in elections.
Mayawati's remarks came two days before the parliamentary elections enter the final lap amidst indications of no clear winner.
An estimated 9.46 crore people are eligible to vote in the fourth phase which will decide the electoral fate of 1,315 candidates including political heavyweights Pranab Mukherjee, External Affairs Minister, of Congress, BJP President Rajnath Singh, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad and Jammu and Kashmir's ruling National Conference party head Farooq Abdullah.
Mukherjee is contesting from Jangipur constituency in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, while Rajnath Singh is making electoral debut from Ghaziabad constituency close to Delhi.
Lalu is in fray in Saran but is also hedging his beat by contesting from another constituency Pataliputra in Bihar. Yadav is fighting in Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh and Abdullah is pitted against his sister Begum Khalida in Srinagar.
Among other prominent candidates in the fourth phase are young Congress leader Sachin Pilot, actor-cum-politician Shatrughan Sinha of BJP, who takes on Congress candidate-cum television actor Shekhar Suman, in Patna, former BJP leader Kalyan Singh in Etah in Uttar Pradesh, where he is being backed by Samajwadi Party, capital of Bihar state and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal fighting in Chandni Chowk constituency in Delhi.
The fourth phase, which will be spread across eight states and federally-administered territories, will see completion of polling for 457 of the total of 543 Lok Sabha seats and two more members are nominated from the Anglo-Indian community.
Among the states going to poll in the penultimate round, West Bengal is of particular interest because of higher threat of intimidation of voters in some of its 17 constituencies. West Bengal has a total of 42 parliamentary constituencies.
Comments