BADAUN (UP): For the Janata Dal the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the number one enemy in Uttar Pradesh and in the north The Congress (I) is nowhere in the picture. The BJP will be pushed to second place in most of the constituencies and there is no mention at all of the Janata Dal (S).

That was the message the former Prime Minister Mr Vishwanath Pratap Singh drummed to the crowds at his meetings on the fourth leg of his election campaign in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. Addressing meetings at Firozabad Jalesar Mainpuri Etah and Badaunt Mr Y.P.Singh drove home the point that the stability card of the Congress (I) was passes and the battle this time was between the Mandal and Mandir proponents.

Crowds lapped it up.

The crowd’s never big but very enthusiastic lapped up the neoteric.

Speaking in his soft manner with the cadence rising an Octave or two only to emphasize a point Mr Singh made it clear that the Janata Dal strategy was to pit Mandal against Mandir and make nothing of the Congress (I)’s stability card.

“Stability what sort of stability is Rajiv talking about? The stability of Bhagapur of Maliana the stability of the rule of the capitalists the stability of the continuance of poverty we will not let such stability remain we will bring about a change bring earth quakes bring storms. The crowd would roar and Mr V.P Singh would then warn them of the other danger of the BJP and its Mandir card.

Pitching Mandal against Mandir Mr Singh would then narrate the tale of two brothers and a buffalo and once the story told give it the required twist to link it with Mandal. Mixing rhetoric with easy to understand parables to drive home his points and to get the people understand the implications of Mandal Commission report Mr V.P Singh struck an instant capport with the people at all the meetings.

Arriving in Firozabad at around 10:30 am straight from Etawahh the former prime minister appeared relaxed. And though he didn’t exactly bound up the stairs to the gaily decked rostrum like Rajiv or Indira Gandhi would have done he did give the impression that the “exhaustion” that had made him cancel his programmes at Moradabad Rampur and Mirgunj comprising the first leg of his tour of the state was a thing of the past.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 19, 1991