NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has told a delegation of the Bharatiya Janata Party that submitted a memorandum to it here on Tuesday that it would not interfere with the Goa panchayat poll schedule announced by the State Election Commission.

The delegation led by Rajiv Pratap Rudy, in-charge of Goa elections, said in its representation "uncertainty had been created due to the possible overlapping of State Panchayat Elections and the State Assembly elections." Since the new Assembly has to be constituted by June 12, the BJP argued that elections would have to be held in May and there could be some overlap with the panchayat polls.

It also complained that the ruling Congress was busy announcing sops, laying foundation stones, sanctioning various schemes and generally using the State machinery to enhance its poll prospects.

Mr. Rudy later told reporters that he was pleased with the outcome of the meeting and the fact that the "uncertainty" hanging over the panchayat polls had been removed.

Five evils

With a few days left for the closing of the campaign for the first phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has raised the pitch of its rhetoric against the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party — in that order.

The "five evils" it has resolved to fight include "communalism" — the other four are criminalisation, corruption, casteism and the (rising) cost of living. If in English its evils are spelt out as the five Cs, in Hindi, the ideals are the 10 Ss: sinchai (irrigation), shiksha (education), swasthya (health), swarozgar (self-employment), suraksha (security), sushasan (good governance), samajik nyaya (social justice), samagra vikas (comprehensive development), sadak-bijli-paani (roads, electricity and water) and finally sanskritik rashtravad (cultural nationalism or Hindutva).

Venkaiah Naidu, in-charge of the BJP's Uttar Pradesh campaign committee, flagged off a mobile platform that would enact small skits and plays in hundreds of places in the State as part of its campaign to drive home the message of "misrule by the Samajwadi Party."

Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, Mr. Naidu charged the SP with creating tensions in Kanpur and Lucknow. He alleged that a SP candidate was himself involved in the clashes around Kanpur. Mr. Naidu warned that the SP could create communal tension and violence as it was interested in frightening Muslims into consolidating their votes in favour of the SP.

`Jail' or `bail'

He made fun of the campaign by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh who has tried to win the people's sympathy by saying that if he was not voted back to power he could be in jail. "Half the SP workers are already in jail, the rest are on bail," he quipped.

A jingle created by the BJP hits at the Congress for the high prices of essential food items and at the SP for `criminalisation' of politics and the worsening law and order situation. It asks the people to vote for the BJP and for "Kalyan" (Kalyan Singh is being projected as the party's chief ministerial candidate) who will make the janta "happy", forgetting that the last time when he was Chief Minister he was removed from office by the party's leadership, which was less than "happy" with him.

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