Maneka stakes claim to 15 seats in Terai region

lucknow: nda allies may rally around the bjp in delhi, but a few of them are all set to harm the saffron party in up. if in western up inld chief om prakash chautala has announced to field candidates, in terai region union minister menaka gandhi's newly-launched party, shakti dal, is ready to contest from 15 seats. maneka declared in khiri on saturday that she had asked for 15 seats from the bjp.if they (bjp leaders) give me those seats then it is fine, otherwise my party is going to contest the polls - come what may, she said. chautala has given a similar threat to bjp in western up. though bjp leaders have not taken the inld threat seriously and have gone ahead to ally with the rashtriya lok dal of ajit singh, but the saffron party cannot afford to take menaka that lightly. menaka had won parliamentary election from pilibhit as an independent candidate supported by the bjp. as this terai region is dominated by sikh refugees, menaka holds sway over all the four assembly constituencies of pilibhit district. in quid pro quo situation, menaka had been helping the bjp to win assembly seats in pilibhit. moreover, if her party contests from khiri she would be directly eating into the vote bank of the bjp. i had two rounds of talks with the bjp leaders about seat sharing. the ball is now in their court. the bjp leaders have to decide and take a final decision, she said at a press conference. bjp chief kalraj mishra admitted that menaka had given a list of probable constituencies from where she would like her candidates to contest election. we have not taken a decision. we will talk to menaka and try to pacify her, he said. belligerence of menaka gandhi could be an attempt to settle scores with bjp national leaders, who unceremoniuosly changed her portfolio recently just to please her sister-in-law sonia gandhi. menaka's additional portfolio of culture was given to jagmohan following a row over presidentship of jawaharlal nehru trust. menaka, who launched her shakti dal in lakhimpur khiri on friday, said she wanted at least five seats from lakhipur khiri, which included nihasan and dharora represented by two ministers in rajnath singh government. she has even announced candidate for dharora, which is represented by minister for small-scale industries saraswati pratap singh. nihasan is represented by bjp backward leader and minister for co-operatives ram kumar patel. as a show of strength, menaka held around half a dozen meetings at the sikh-dominated regions of khiri and asked people to support her shakti dal. political pundits saythat with these meetings menaka may be trying to fathom political waters and may be preparing grounds for her son varun gandhi. besides khiri and pilibhit districts, menaka has shown willingness to field her candidates from basti, bahedi, rampur, nawabganj and madiaon assembly constituencies.