ALLAHABAD: BJP National Secretary Siddharth Nath Singh today said the party would fight the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on the twin planks of "good governance" and "eradication of corruption and criminalisation of politics".
"In UP there is a tremendous yearning for good governance and a political climate free from the menaces of corruption and criminalisation.
"We wish to keep our focus on this aspiration and not get distracted by talks of what other parties are doing. Whether we would have a face or not during the polls has to be decided by the Parliamentary Board.
"But we see no reason why we should rush towards a decision on this count merely because our opponents, suffering from political bankruptcy, have projected their chief ministerial candidates," Singh told PTI here.
"We just need to look at the current state of the SP, the BSP and the Congress to get an idea of the extent to which they have become politically bankrupt. The SP is in power but is incapable of preventing incidents like the Mathura violence and the Bulandshahr gang-rape," he said.
"The BSP had ruled the state in recent past and its tenure is remembered only for rampant corruption. The Congress has suddenly brought in Sheila Dikshit with a view to playing the Brahmin card.
"All this shows they have run short of ideas as well as the ability to convince the people that they can fulfil promises if voted to power," Singh said. Singh rebutted BSP supremo Mayawati's repeated allegations that the BJP was "anti-Dalit", in the wake of the alleged assault on lower caste youths in Gujarat and "objectionable" comments by expelled party leader Dayashankar Singh, saying "she has been on a back foot and is now trying to use these incidents as a springboard for herself".
"While she was in power in UP, as per official statistics, more than 3,000 incidents of crimes against Dalit women were reported from the state. So she could do nothing for the very segment which she believes to be her core vote bank.
"Compare that with the swift action against the accused in BJP-ruled Gujarat and the alacrity with which Dayashankar Singh, our state unit vice-president was sacked," Singh said.