NEW DELHI: The Samajwadi Janata Party (SIP) will not participate in the February 19 elections in Punjab as the government had failed 10 make adequate preparations for the polls in the stale party leader and former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar announced here on Friday.
Talking to newsmen Shekhar said the government had also aggravated the “sense of frustration and despair” among the people and. in the process had lost the credibility to bold a free and fair poll.
“The SIP in no way wants to be a party to this inept handling of a very critical and sensitive situation in the state” Chandra Shekhar said clarifying that it was not boycotting the polls.
“Boycott and non-participation are two different things” he said.
In June last when he was the prime minister apolitical climate was created in which various Akali parties and all other parties were ready to participate in the electoral process and there was a hope for the future.
However no sooner had Congress (I) returned to power the scheduled June elections in Punjab were “inexplicably postponed and later cancelled which further deepened the profound sense of alienation of the Punjab masses”
Article extracted from this publication >> February 14, 1992
