BSP claims it will repeat UP poll performance in HP

SHIMLA: The BSP on Tuesday claimed it would spring a surprise in the coming assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh like it did in Uttar Pradesh by coming to power with a thumping majority on its own.
    
"BSP will contest all the 68 seats in Himachal on its own and there will be no tie-up or seat-sharing with any party...we will win not less than 50 seats," party's state convenor and chief ministerial candidate Vijay Singh Mankotia said.
    
On the Congress and BJP ruling the BSP out as a serious player in the coming assembly polls he said, "let them live in illusion...we will spring a surprise for them when election results were out."
    
Warning both the parties that they were underestimating the BSP at their 'own peril', Mankotia claimed huge crowds at the party's election rallies and a 'virtual stampede' among people for a party ticket were the basis of his optimism.
    
Mankotia who was suspended from the Congress after he released a cd against the Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his MP wife Pratibha Singh charging them with corruption later quit the Shahpur assembly seat in Kangra district and joined the BSP.
    
He said corruption, price rise, unemployment and the financial mess created by successive Congress and BJP governments in the state will be the party's main poll issues.
    
As a novel move the party will not release any poll manifesto this time, he said adding that all its candidates will sign a 'bond' with the public instead committing to work for the development of their respective constituencies or resign.