SALT-Iodine Obsession

head of the election management committee has not won universal approval in the party's Maharashtra unit.
The BJP seems to be aware that even if it performs well in the elections, it will not be in a position to stake a claim to forming the government at the centre on its own. Though negotiations with N T Ramarao's Telegu Desam in Andhra Pradesh and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu have failed, the party is hopeful about Punjab, Haryana, Assam and Bihar. George Fernandes's Samata Party, which flopped miserably in the last assembly elections in Bihar, has decided to align with the BJP in Bihar. Though Fernandes may invoke the spirit of Lohia' s anti-Congressism to justify his alliance with the BJP, it is clear that he and Nitish Kumar, both of whom are to contest the Lok Sabha poll from Bihar, need the prop of the BJP if they are to stand any chance against Laloo Prasad Yadav's Janata Dal. Except Shi v Sena in Maharashtra, all the other parties looking for election tie- ups with the BJP are doing so in a desperate bid for political survival and are unlikely to add much to its electoral muscle.