ALL PARTIES RAISE THE PITCH FOR ELECTIONS

 

Agra April 20 (IANS)

 

All major political parties are now focusing on the sixth phase of voting on April 24 when 117 constituencies in 12 states go to the polls, including 39 in Tamil Nadu and a dozen in UP

 

Bad weather on Saturday forced cancellation of rallies by UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in Agra region.

He was to address meetings in Jalesar and Etmadpur but after waiting at the Lucknow airport for more than four hours, decided to postpone the rallies to Sunday.

 

The Samajwadi Party has now revised the schedule according to which Akhilesh Yadav will Sunday address two rallies in Fatehabad and Etmadpur, alongwith Jaya Bachchan.

 

Jaya Bachchan has been particularly invited by the Samajwadi Party to address a meeting from the Fatehpur Sikri rural seat from which RLD cadidate Amar Singh is contesting.

 

Amar Singh in the past few days has been holding road shows with film stars like Jayaprada, Sri Devi, Bonney Kapoor, Raja Murad and Asrani. Singh has a few more film stars lined up in the run up to the April 24 poll. Interestingly, the fight now seems to have become three-cornered with Amar Singh pushed back to the fourth place, according to poll watchers in the Fatehpur Sikri area.

 

"After Mayawati's huge public rally in Agra appealing to dalits and muslims to close ranks and ensure victory of the party candidate Seema Upadhyaya who trounced Raj Babbar last time, the support for the BSP appears being consolidated," says a tourist guide of the area Ved Gautam. Her "dalit ke beti for PM"  emotional appeal has touched many voters, he adds.

 

Meanwhile, the Bhartiya Janata Party has announced that the party president Raj Nath Singh will address election rallies in Anwal Kheda and Kheragarh, before moving on to Firozabad.