UNI

Lucknow, Mar 10:  The Bharatiya Janata Party has agreed in principle to go for seat adjustment with smaller parties like Apna Dal and Janata Dal(U) in the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

"The BJP's Central leadership has taken into consideration the view of the UP unit in this regard thus paving for the electoral arrangement with Apna Dal, JD(U) and possibly other smaller NDA constituentes in the state," party's national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told sources. However, the talks on the number of seats to be shared are continuing, he said.

"The extent of the adjustment and the number of seats will finally be decided after the Central Election Committee meetings on March 10 and 11 in New Delhi.The list of candidates would also be announced after this meeting", he said.

Exuding confidence that the BJP will secure a comfortable majority in 403-member UP assembly, the senior BJP leader said the exercise was being taken up to forge strategic alliance for even better performance.

Sone Lal Patel-led Apna Dal, which has managed to make its presence felt during the recent years, is mainly confined to eastern UP with a reasonable support of Backwards (Kurmis) and Dalits. The idea behind the electoral adjustment with the party is to eat into traditional vote bank of Mayawati-led BSP and to an extent the ruling Samajwadi Party.

JD(U) has been a prominent constituent of National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

BJP national president Rajnath Singh, who is in the state capital, had said last evening that the decision for the seat adjustment would only be made after the state unit ''okays'' it.

Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) has already taken a lead in finalising candidates on most of the assembly seats but they are yet to make it official. Mayawati is slated to arrive here today and within a day or two the first candidates list is expected to be released. The BJP and Congress leaders held long, closed-door meets in the state capital to discuss the names of the candidates but the list is likely to be released in the national capital by their high-command this week.

While the BJP's candidates would require nod from the RSS and other senior leaders of the party, in Congress the Gandhi family --Sonia and Rahul-- would finalise the list forthe state.

According to political observers, prominent parties are adopting a wait and watch policy as they are waiting for the release of the names of candidates of the other parties before selecting their own candidates.

Rashtriya Lok Dal(RLD) led by Ajit Singh was also engaged in discussions with other like minded parties including the Congress and Janmorcha for a pre-poll alliance before announcing their candidates, mostly for the Western parts of the state.

Meanwhile, smaller parties like Janmorcha, Left Parties, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and others are also likely to announce their candidates very soon. Only the CPI(M) has announced the names of the candidates for 14 seats which it will contest in the polls.