The Hindu : BJP finalises two names for U.P. Council polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 10, 2003

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National

BJP finalises two names for U.P. Council polls

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 9. The Bharatiya Janata Party's central election committee met at the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's residence this evening to consider the party's nominees for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections and to take a broad look at the party's poll strategy for the Assembly elections expected to be held next month. The BJP's strength in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly will enable it to get three of its candidates elected, provided there is no cross-voting. At today's meeting, two names — Surendra Nath Awasthi, former MLA who had vacated his Haidergarh constituency for Rajnath Singh when Mr. Singh replaced Ram Prakash Gupta as Chief Minister, and Raj Kumar Tyagi, a BJP zonal office-bearer in Uttar Pradesh — were finalised. It was felt that every effort should be made to end factionalism and dissidence in the party to fight the polls.

Earlier, the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, held a meeting with party general secretaries to discuss poll-related and organisational issues, the problem of dissidence in Uttar Pradesh and the ongoing membership drive. Later, he held a separate meeting with some Uttar Pradesh leaders, where the general secretary Rajnath Singh, the State party president, Vinay Katiyar, and the senior State leader and Minister, Lalji Tandon, were present.

The party is reportedly looking for a compromise to enable dissidents who have been threatened with disqualification to return to the party fold. One formula that is being considered is a public apology and expression of regret by the dissidents and dropping of the move for disqualification by the Assembly Speaker. The party has been claiming that a few dissidents have already "returned home". The party is keen to put the issue behind it before the Council elections as it will need all the votes to get even the three elected.

Apparently, the issue related to the reported statements of Mr. Katiyar on B.R. Ambedkar and his views on Muslims came up for discussion. It was felt that the party should do nothing to create tensions within the BJP-Bahujan Samaj Party coalition in the State.

After the meeting, Mr. Katiyar told presspersons that he had been misreported on Dr. Ambedkar who was not against Muslims but was against Partition and the Muslim League.

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