NEW DELHI: The Ruling elite has switched its loyalty from the Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party, and that is the reason for the rout of the Congress in the just concluded by election results, according to former Prime Minister and Janata Dal leader V_P.Singh.

He added that the process would continue for another five to seven years. Addressing newspersons here last week, Singh said the forces of social justice were gaining momentum and they would only rest after they had succeeded in demolishing the Congress as well as the BJP, as demonstrated in the current round of by elections.

He, however, conceded that the BJP would also become stronger in the coming days, Singh forecast that the forces of social justice too would continue their march and be satisfied with “nothing short of absolute control over the same commanding heights of power structure that the ruling elite now enjoys, not just a few jobs through the reservation quota.”

“This decade will be the decade of the deprived sections,” he announced, adding that “Mandal vayumandal ho gaya hal (Mandal has affected the entire atmosphere).”

Analyzing the results of the current by elections, he said the results clearly showed that the Congress had been cannibalized between the forces of social justice and status quoits, and antisocial justice forces represented by the BJP.

While congratulating the Desam leader N.T.Rama Rao and the people of Andhra Pradesh for returning the TDP to both the Assembly seals in the State, he felt that the National Front Left Front combine has sprung back in Andhra.

In respect of the Janata Dal, the former Prime Minister proved that his party had stood ground in Orissa while the victory in Bihar had proved the personal popularity enjoyed Chief Minister Laloo Prasad the fact that the JD ideology had taken root in Bihar.

He pointed out that both the assembly seats of Goh and Garwah were considered BJP strongholds.

The former Prime Minister, who. came to the party office accompanied by party vice president Ram Vilas Paswan, maintained a silence on the issue of unity of all the erstwhile Dal factions, although party spokesman Harikishore Singh told newspersons that talks for striking analliance with the Samajwadi Janata Party (BJP), the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Janata Dal of Ajit Singh and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of Kanshi Ram were progressing satisfactorily,

He also announced that the Political Affairs Committee of the party would meet on June 78 to discuss the issue further.

Article extracted from this publication >>  June 4, 1993