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The
Congress has its Gandhi stars, the Samajwadi Party the Bachchan family
and the BJP its Dharmendras and Hema Malinis, not to mention political
bigwigs like L.K. Advani. But the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is banking
only on chief Mayawati to bring in the votes in the crucial Uttar
Pradesh polls.
All
parties are gearing up to bring in the biggest and the best campaigners
as electioneering takes off in Uttar Pradesh for the seven-phased
assembly elections from April 7. It is only the BSP that has nobody
else but Mayawati to fall back on.
"We do not believe in the
gimmick of roping in film-stars or any other high-profile persons for
the campaign. Mayawatiji is competent and strong enough to meet the
combined might of top leaders of the entire opposition," BSP general
secretary Satish Chandra Misra told IANS.
The 51-year-old Dalit
leader, who has emerged as the undisputed inheritor of the late BSP
founder Kanshi Ram's political legacy, kicks off her campaign March 24
from Auraiya, just next to arch adversary and Chief Minister Mulayam
Singh Yadav's home in Etawah.
Though she had carried out her
party's campaign single-handedly in 2002 as well, because Kanshi Ram
decided to focus attention in Punjab, this is the first time she
undertakes the task after her political mentor's demise.
Her
rivals -- the ruling Samajwadi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party and the
Congress -- are going quite the other way. They will have their
national leaders and are roping in Bollywood stars to help them along
the way.
Yet another attraction at poll rallies, particularly
in rural constituencies, will be Mumbai's dance bar girls being hired
in a big way by different political parties.
Mulayam's Samajwadi
Party tops the star list with none other than Amitabh Bachchan likely
to share the stage with him at several places. Poll strategists are in
the process of working out a plan to add Abhishek Bachchan and fiancйe
Aishwarya Rai for the party's poll show.
MPs and former stars
Jaya Bachchan and Jaya Prada are already making their presence felt,
hitting the front pages Tuesday when they accompanied Mulayam to Etawah
where he filed his nomination. They are likely to be with him
throughout the campaign.
The party's well-connected general
secretary Amar Singh is understood to be negotiating with several other
Bollywood stars to add more glamour to the party. Prominent among these
is Shilpa Shetty and playback singer Sonu Nigam.
The BJP is also
giving final touches to a high profile poll campaign to be launched by
former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former chief minister
Kalyan Singh from Kanpur next week.
Others to follow include
former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani and national leaders like
Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and party president Raj Nath Singh, who
proposes to camp in the state for the next two months.
It will
also bank in on its own film star MPs Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Vinod
Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha and TV actress Smriti Irani. Efforts are on to
bring in the second generation, Vinod Khanna's son Akshay and
Dharmendra's children Sunny and Esha Deol.
Not willing to lag
behind, the Congress plans road shows with its MP Govinda and
supporters like Rajesh Khanna. And the buzz is that the party is also
trying to get Shah Rukh Khan to match the Bachchan's family appeal.
Of
course, party chief Sonia Gandhi's children Rahul and Priyanka are the
ultimate stars. They will be there with their mother, who will
obviously be spinning across the vast state seeking people's support
for the party that has been down in the dumps in the politically vital
state.
Indo-Asian News Service
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