New Delhi, September 27
Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh appears to be inclining to have a pre-election alliance with the Congress for the coming Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh which will end his relationship with the Samajwadi Party.

What seems to be tilting the balance in favour of the Congress is the issue of carving out of 'Harit Pradesh' from the present territory of Uttar Pradesh for which Mr Singh has been clamouring for the last two decades and has been opposed by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The Congress leadership, sources said, has conveyed to the RLD supremo that it is willing for a second reorganisation of the state and that is likely to lead to a pre-election alliance between the two.

Stating that last time he had entered into a post-electoral tie-up with the SP so that the BSP and BJP could be stopped from coming into power in the state, Mr Singh said this time, political dynamics was totally different.

The electorate is disillusioned with the Samajwadi Party, the BJP and the BSP, he said adding that the state would have a fractured mandate after the election.

The stability would continue to elude the biggest state, Mr Singh pointed out and said that unless Uttar Pradesh was divided into administratively governable units, instability would remain the order of the day.

Mr Singh said his most fundamental disagreement with the ruling Party in Uttar Pradesh was with the way land acquisition was being done in the state.

''Prime agricultural land is being taken from farmers for a paltry compensation, and then given to private industrial houses to develop luxury apartments for the rich, which was unacceptable,''.

''You acquire such a land only for some pressing public utility out of compulsion, but how are these super-luxury apartments going to serve the commonman,'' he said.

The land acquisition rules in Uttar Pradesh needed to changed, he demanded.

He also lambasted the agricultural credit policy of the government, saying only 50 per cent of the needy farmers were getting institutional loans, and the rest have to depend on local money lender.

Mr Singh also came down heavily on the government for the total collapse of the Public Distribution System, lack of power and diesel and increasing unemployment, weavers plight.

''There is no leader to raise these issues in the state,'' he said.

Though caste considerations would also prevail, the coming elections in the state would be fought mainly on the issue of development, he said.

''After touring the state recently, I have come to a definite conclusion that the commonman in the state wants change,'' he said.