ALLAHABAD, India, June 14, Reuter: The main opposition candidate in the most vital of seven Indian by-elections stepped up accusations of government corruption on Tuesday in the last hours of the campaign.

The ruling Congress (l) Party of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is defending all seven Parliamentary seats at stake in Thursday’s vote and the opposition has pushed the corruption theme in the hope of dealing it a major blow.

“People have started feeling that the government is corrupt and for the first time it has become an election issue,” said Murali Manohar Joshi, General Secretary of the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BJP is one of several parties backing a single candidate in Allahabad, Gandhi’s home town.

The candidate, Vishwanath Pratap Singh quit Gandi’s cabinet to campaign against alleged government corruption and passionately repeated his accusations in his last speeches before the campaign closed on Tuesday evening.

He alleged government officials had taken bribes from Swedish and West German companies which won major defense contracts.

Although the government denies the charges, even Congress (I) officials admit concern over the impact they are having on the campaign in Allahabad, where a defeat to the party would be a major embarrassment.

“V.P. Singh’s image as someone who has given up high office in protest over corruption has made corruption a factor in the elections”, said one senior Congress Party official who asked not to be identified.

Singh’s campaign in Allahbad, where he is a prominent landowner, has had a notable impact at an arms factory on the edge of the town in the Hindu heartland of India which has traditionally formed the core of Congress (I) support.

“All of us working in this army ordinance depot will vote for V.P. Singh because he is talking about something which concerns us,” one employee told Reuters.

Congress officials also concede that Singh had made inroads into the traditional Moslem and low caste Congress support.

Article extracted from this publication >> June 17, 1988