UP: Khurana parts ways with Uma

Upset over not being consulted on withdrawal of Bharatiya Jan Shakti candidates from Uttar Pradesh polls, maverick politician Madan Lal Khurana on Saturday quit the Uma Bharti-led party, which he had joined as acting president barely two months ago.

Khurana, a Union Minister during the NDA regime and a former Delhi chief minister, said he would work 'to the last breath' for a complete statehood for Delhi and form a third front to contest assembly elections next year.

"My only grouse against Bharti is that she did not consult me over the withdrawal of candidates from the Uttar Pradesh polls in favour of the BJP," he said.

Khurana also expressed his displeasure at Bharti not campaigning for her own Bharatiya Jan Shakti in the just concluded elections for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

The BJP swept the MCD polls, while the BJS managed to win in only four of the total 272 wards, raising speculation that Bharti did not campaign to help the BJP, which she had quit after a much-televised face-off with veteran leader L K Advani.

"I had made a mistake by joining the BJS as its acting president. I should have been consulted before the withdrawal of candidates from the UP polls. I am no small fry, my position in the party was equivalent to that of the [resident," he told media persons in New Delhi.

He said he was holding talks with a range of non-BJP and non-Congress parties for his plans to launch a third front.

"There are several parties who want to join me, but had maintained distance due to the presence of Bharati," he claimed.

Khurana attacked Bharti's decision of withdrawing candidates in Uttar Pradesh after the conclusion of the second phase of elections.

"If she had to withdraw candidates, she should have done it before the election process began," he said.

Khurana said he will announce a third front to take on the Congress and the BJP in the national capital after the UP elections.

"Several parties who are fighting against each other in Uttar Pradesh want to be with me in Delhi," he claimed.

Bharti's move to withdraw her candidates came in the wake of an appeal from Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal in support of Kalyan Singh as the chief ministerial candidate and 'in the larger interests of Hindus.'

The VHP had recently brokered reconciliation between the BJP and party parliamentarian Yogi Adityanath, who had announced to put up candidates against the BJP from his pocket-borough of Gorakhpur.