Crucial BJP meet on U.P. today

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, JUNE 4. A crucial closed-door meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party on the impending Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls is scheduled for tomorrow evening at the residence of the Union Home Minister, Mr L. K. Advani. All the party bigwigs from the Centre and the State will be here to discuss how to streamline the organisation.

The BJP does not want to take any chances, for the outcome of the polls will decide not only which party rules the most populous State but also whether the Vajpayee Government at the Centre will or will not complete its five-year tenure.

There continues to be some confusion about the likely dates for the polls. Although according to the Election Commission the polls are not due till February-March next year - because the first session of the Assembly was held in March 1997 - the party wants to make sure it is ready to face the people by September, as elections were last held in September-October 1996.

The anomaly has arisen because the elected MLAs in 1996 began to draw their allowances and enjoy other perquisites from the time they were elected, but the Assembly did not meet till March 1997 because no party was immediately in a position to form a Government. The matter is also before the courts.

Tomorrow's meeting will be attended by the party president, Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi, the general secretary, organisation, Mr. Narendra Modi, the general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Pyarelal Khandelwal, the Human Resource Development Minister, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, the Chief Minister, Mr. Rajnath Singh, the State unit president, Mr. Kalraj Mishra, Mr. Lalji Tandon and Mr. Om Prakash Singh. Mr. Khandelwal today indicated that the discussion would centre round organising the party and getting it prepared for polls, expected to be the toughest and the most critical the BJP has faced in over a decade in the State. The party fears that the downward trend in its fortunes in the State, very much evident in the results of the 1999 Lok Sabha election, may continue despite the fact that the party has now the third Chief Minister in office - the first was Mr. Kalyan Singh, who left the party after exchanging more than hot words with the Prime Minister, and then Mr. Ram Prakash Gupta, who was seen as a political lightweight, well meaning but totally uninspiring.

Tomorrow's meeting is expected to focus on the task of getting into place key party workers in every constituency. Workers may be brought from other States where no elections are due. An analysis of the party's strong and weak areas will be done. The party is trying to work out a strategy which will help it consolidate its position where it is strong even as it takes steps to strengthen itself in areas where it is weak.

Plans may also be worked out to coordinate with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's plans for Ayodhya in February, but the party will have to work out a strategy whereby it can reap the Hindutva benefits without causing strains in the National Democratic Alliance Government led by Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee.

There are also reports that the party may put Mr. Om Prakash Singh, former State unit president, in his old post, to signal that it has not abandoned the backward castes after Mr. Kalyan Singh's exit. The current president, Mr. Kalraj Mishra, could be accommodated at the Centre after his unopposed election to the Rajya Sabha today.

Although party leaders here denied any move to change the party head in the State, it is agreed that the BJP badly needs to prevent Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief, from further consolidating his hold on the backward castes.

One part of the strategy has already become clear - arrive at electoral arrangements with some of the smaller parties present in the State with restricted but specific bases of support, such as the Apna Dal and Mr. Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal.

Digvijay denial

PTI reports from Guna:

The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. Digvijay Singh, has denied reports suggesting that he had been made chief of a committee set up by the Congress for the coming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Talking to presspersons here on Sunday, Mr. Singh said he was merely a member of the committee set up under Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh.

Asked what formula he would suggest to the party for the polls in Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Singh said, amid laughter, that he had often been described as a ``formula Chief Minister.''

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