After urban wins, BJP upbeat in UP

Agra -  Following the BJP's victory in local bodies elections, the party's Uttar Pradesh unit president Laxmi Kant Vajpayee said Wednesday that his party hoped to provide a credible alternative in future elections.

"We are back on track and the momentum is clearly with us," Vajpayee told IANS.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party now needed to work in rural areas and consolidate the gains of the recent elections in towns and cities, he added.

After its dismal showing in assembly elections, the BJP is buoyed on winning 10 of 12 mayoral posts. The Congress was routed.

BJP candidates won mayoral elections in Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Agra, Gorakhpur, Moradabad, Aligarh, Jhansi and Varanasi.

In Lucknow, the BJP won for a second consecutive term defeating the Congress by 171,824 votes.

Vajpayee targeted the ruling Samajwadi Party, which he said had not been able to deliver what it had promised before the assembly elections.

"Disillusionment and disenchantment is writ large all over," he said. "Except for Muslim appeasement, nothing concrete has been done in UP."

Vajpayee said though the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party did not field candidates in the recent local bodies elections, they had supported independents. Most of them reportedly lost.

The rout of the Congress was clearly a signal that voters in Uttar Pradesh now see the BJP as a credible alternative, he added. In the assembly polls, the Congress had fared on par with the BJP.

"Our workers are enthused and in high spirits and want to repeat the success in Mathura, Kosi, Vrindavan and Kannauj where local body elections have been postponed," Vajpayee said.

As part of his tour of the state, Vajpayee has met BJP workers in 16 districts so far.

He said the BJP hopes to win a majority of seats in the state when the Lok Sabha elections were held.

"We have asked the party leadership to announce the names of candidates in advance," he said.

"We will definitely put up an impressive show. Our morale is high, and we will, come what may, return with a bang," Vajpayee said.