If Jaya comes will Joshi go?

Arindam Roy

[Saturday, March 06, 2004 03:26:43 am TIMES NEWS NETWORK]


ALLAHABAD: Will Jaya Bachhan contest from Allahabad, as most people in this city believe? In that case, will HRD minister M M Joshi, three times MP from this seat, play safe by fighting from another 'safe' seat?

The possibility of Jaya Bachchan as a Samajwadi Party candidate has already charged up Allahabad. So much so that Joshi, who'd created some sort of record by scoring a hat-trick, might be tempted to hedge his bets.

Jaya already has a toehold in UP: she's the chairperson of UP Film Development Corporation.

The buzz is that Joshi is considering playing it safe. He is looking at Uttaranchal and might contest from a safe seat there simultaneously.

Former UP chief minister Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna who represented Allahabad had also played safe by contesting from Pauri Garhwal in 1980 as a Congress candidate and later as an Independent in 1982.

Although BJP sources trash the chances of the minister leaving the city where he has done 'so much', Joshi dropped hints about a move at a press conference on February 24.

He had said that he was awaiting the BJP's directive and would contest from wherever the party asked him to. He also said that Jaya was most welcome.

As for Jaya, local SP folks claim that Amar Singh has convinced her to contest from Allahabad, where Amitabh defeated Bahuguna with a huge margin of 1.9 lakh votes.

(Also published in Economic Times)