The Hindu : BJP meet begins to chalk out election strategy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2003

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Other States - Madhya Pradesh

BJP meet begins to chalk out election strategy

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL JUNE 25. The Bharatiya Janata Party wants to contest the Assembly elections due later this year in several States on the issue of "development'' but at the same time appears determined to carry forward its image as a party committed to Hindutva and its original stand on the Ayodhya temple issue, judging by the deliberations at the BJP office-bearers' meeting in Gwalior today.

A senior BJP leader told this correspondent that there should be no confusion. The BJP-led Central Government is working on the basis of the common NDA programme and hence the question of a special Act for the Ayodhya temple does not arise. However, as a party, the BJP remains committed to its original stand on Ayodhya, he emphasised.

The BJP leaders who met in Gwalior today were mainly engaged in chalking out their party's strategy for the Assembly elections due later this year in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi.

The party president, Venkaiah Naidu, and the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, reached Gwalior this morning to attend the meeting. The Union Minister, Arun Jaitley, was also supposed to join the deliberations but was kept away by some pressing engagements.

The BJP leaders started the day by offering floral tributes at the samadhi of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia. They later joined the brainstorming session to fine tune their party's strategy for the coming Assembly elections.

Besides the Deputy Prime Minister and the BJP president, prominent among those who attended the meeting were Pramod Mahajan, Pyarelal Khandelwal, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Sanjay Joshi, M.A. Naqvi, Dilip Singh Bhuria, Balvant Apte, Babulal Marandi, Harshvardhan, Karuna Shukla, Kailash Johi and BJP's chief ministerial candidate for Madhya Pradesh, Uma Bharti.

At the outset, the BJP office-bearers congratulated the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, on the outcome of his China visit. The BJP leaders' were steadfast in their stand that the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections would only be contested on the issue of development. They strongly felt that the voters in Madhya Pradesh would vote out the Congress from power due to the Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh's "misrule''. The BJP leaders from the State also conveyed to the party leadership that the people of Madhya Pradesh are fed up due to lack of infrastructure and acute electricity crisis.

The general mood among the BJP office-bearers is apparently upbeat and this was reflected in their Gwalior session where most BJP leaders were highly optimistic while rating their party's prospects in the coming elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi.

The BJP leaders later this evening addressed a huge public rally. Mr.Venkaiah Naidu urged the Madhya Pradesh voters to vote for change in the coming elections if they want to come out of the clutches of "utter backwardness''. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, in his speech blamed the Congress for the country's backwardness. He said the Prime Minister wants the country to join the group of developed nations by 2020. The coming Assembly elections would be like a semi-final, he said, adding that the finals would take the country further on the path of progress led by Mr. Vajpayee.

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