NEW DELHI: As the final ground of electioneering gets underway again Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar’s Samajwadi Janata Party has virtually counted itself out of the contest.
Senior SJP leaders openly admit that the party is likely to be obliterated in the coming days mauled electorally and then splitting in different directions in the realignment that is expected after the elections.
So despondent is the mood in the party that it has given up all pretense of being a serious contender in these polls. Mr Chandra Shekhar has called a halt to his hectic touring and is concentrating instead on ensuring that he retains his seat. He has been in his constituency for the past two days and he’s going there again. Just before campaigning ends and then once more on poling day.
In between he has conceded to tour selected constituencies in Orissa Madhya Pradesh Bihar southern states is slated for June 12 Mr Chandra Shekhar is not expected to visit any of them.
This is in stark contrast to the frenzied pace at which he was moving in the initial phase when he was out on the road every day campaigning from early morning to late at night in practically every state in the country sometimes covering two states in one day.
The panthic response he drew almost everywhere was a galling revelation that the slogan of 40 years versus 4 months had no takers. In Uttar Pradesh for instance security men outnumbered the crowd at several places and in Andhra Pradesh he cancelled scheduled meetings at the last minute because nobody had turned up to listen to him.
For the Deputy Prime Minister Mr Devi Lal who happens to be the SJP president as well these in Haryana.
In the first phase of electioneering he hardly stirred out of the state where he had to fight tooth and nail to save him from oblivion.
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