STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE

LUCKNOW, June 20. — It is election time in Uttar Pradesh. The UP BJP chief ,Mr Kalraj Mishra has suddenly realised that voters are in the villages. He has ordered all senior leaders of the party to spend the next Sunday night in villages.

Under the Chalo Gaon Ki Sune ( Let’s us hear the villagers) programme the party wants to cover all 8,814 panchayats in the state. Mr Mishra himself will be away in Johwashi village in Rae Barelli and the Chief Minister, Mr Rajnath Singh, will be spending the night at Dadri in Jalon district.

“It will not be a one-side speech making show. It will be a village chaupal (gathering) in which the problems of villagers will be listened to and the party’s and government’s achievements both at the Centre and the state will be explained”, Mr Mishra said here today announcing the ambitious programme.

”It will be direct dialogue with the villagers”, he said.

Mr Mishra said that it was an extension of the past programmes of “panchayats” organised by the party dealing with the problems of different sections of the rural population.

He alleged that the other opposition political parties were trying to create an atmosphere of distrust among the castes in view of the elections. In this connection he mentioned the recent killings of dalits in Aligarh and Fatehpur districts.

“All attempts will be made to foil this politics of murder”, Mr Mishra said.

On the other hand, BSP leader Ms Mayawati said the BJP led government had failed on all counts and the right wing party was once attempting to raise the issue of Ram temple at Ayodhya. She said that the martial training programme to the Bajrang Dal volunteers was a step in this direction.

She also announced that the party would be launching a state wide agitation to protest the failure of the government from 20 July. Just as the BJP, the BSP was also going to cover all the villages under the programme.