| BHARTIYA JANTA PARTY | [Top] |
| Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) started off in the early 1980s as the Hindu majority face of Indian politics. Held responsible for the demolition of the Babari mosque in Ayodhya and thereby unleashing communal hysteria in the country, the BJP established itself as the champions sporting Hindutva ( Hinduism). But now as it goes for the kill to attain power in the country, it is trying its hand at broadbasing its support, specially by going soft on its Hindutva plank. The party which is the political wing of the Rashtriya Sewak Sangh (RSS) `parivar' (family) is headed by leaders like Lal Krishna Advani, who is the president and Atal Behari Vajpayee, its leader in the Lok Sabha, who is being projected as the party's Prime Ministerial candidate. In Uttar Pradesh, the party is headed by chief minister Kalyan Singh. The party currently has 52 Lok Sabha members from U.P. |
| SAMAJVADI PARTY | [Top] |
| Samajvadi Party (SP) or earlier Samajvadi Janata Party (SJP) in 1991 was on offshoot of the Janata Dal, a unified anti-Congress front of 1989. Its founder Mulayam Singh Yadav is known as BJP-hater and the torch-bearer of the secular front. Yadav and his party are hailed by the minorities as the saviours of the Babari mosque which was raided by the Hindutva forces in 1990 when he was the chief minister. The SP is one of the major constituents of the United Front which has been ruling the country recently. The party is now attain a national character as it will be contesting the current Lok Sabha elections in five more states including Maharashtra, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Currently it has 15 Lok Sabha members from UP alone and is angling to increase its strength this time. |
| BAHUJAN SAMAJ PARTY | [Top] |
| Bahujan Samaj Party or DS-4 in 1980s has become a force to reckon with eversince it made its emphatic presence felt in 1993 U.P. Vidhan Sabha (State assembly) elections. The party came in power first time after dumping its allaince partner Samajvadi Party (SP) in 1995 and then again by forging an allaince with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1997. On both occassion party supremo Kanshi Ram installed his `cheli' (disciple) Mayawati as the chief minister of the state. Known to be as slippery as eels in political situations, the BSP is a self-styled representative of the Dalits or Bahujan Samaj (weaker sections). The party currently has 6 Lok Sabha MPs from U.P. |
| CONGRESS | [Top] |
| Indian National Congress (INC) is the party which ruled the country for nearly half a century. But ever since the emergence of fundamentalist groups headed by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and also regional forces in the country, the party has been knocked out significantly. Though still a strong contender in the number game at the national level, the party is virtually in a pitiable condition in Uttar Pradesh which till 1989 was its citadel of sorts. Lead by the likes of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, who used contest elections from U.P., the party managed to win just 5 Lok Sabha seats in 1996. With Sonia Gandhi starting her U.P. campaign from Amethi, her late husband Rajiv Gandhi's constituency, the party hopes to improve its position in this crucial state in the current elections. |