ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Lok Tantrik Congress to continue backing UP government

The Lok Tantrik Congress, an ally of the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh, today said it would continue to extend support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, even if any other party leader replaced the chief minister.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, LTC chief Naresh Aggrawal ruled out mid-term polls in the state, saying their government would complete its five-year term. Referring to the ongoing leadership controversy in the BJP state unit, Aggrawal said it was an internal issue of the party and that his party had nothing to do with it. Its support to the BJP was intended to form a stable government in the state.

He, however, admitted that the conflict in the BJP state unit had adversely affected the image of the state government. The BJP high command in Delhi had been asked to step in and help sort out the issue once and for all.

The LTC leader, who is also the energy minister in the Kalyan Singh government, said his government's performance came up to scratch but that due to the organisational crisis in the BJP state unit policies and programmes were not percolating down to the people. No government work, howsoever pro-people, could reach its target unless the activists of the ruling party propagated and helped in its implementation, Aggrawal said.

The minister said his party would continue to perform its duties, both as a ruling and an opposition entity. His party's opposition role would be in favour of farmers and other dispossessed people, he said.

Farmer's leader Mohinder Singh Tikait, who was also present at the press conference, said his organisation was backing the farmers' demand that defaulters among them should not be made to pay penal interests, which often was about four times the principal. The minister said his party would support the farmers' demand.

Aggrawal today floated the Delhi unit of his party, with Ravinder Gupta as its president.

Tell us what you think of this report