The Hindu : BJP poll panel to meet from Nov. 3

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003

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National

BJP poll panel to meet from Nov. 3

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 27. The Bharatiya Janata Party will begin the final process of selection of candidates for the five Assembly polls being held later this year when its Central Election Committee will meet here for three days from November 3 with the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, in the chair.

The State units of the BJP in the five States — Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Mizoram — have been asked to finalise their recommendations for consideration of the Central Election Committee before it meets.

The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, the Agriculture Minister, Rajnath Singh, and the general secretaries of the party, Pramod Mahajan, Sanjay Joshi and M.A. Naqvi, are among the 17 members who will take part in the meetings to finalise the candidates.

The former party president, Kushabhau Thakre, has been included, as also the former Gujarat Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel. The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, and the Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, are among the others who will attend the meetings.

Briefing correspondents here today, Mr. Naqvi said, "mis-governance and corruption in the Congress-ruled States'' would be among the issues that would be taken up during the election campaigns. The BJP will also project the "Centre's achievements'' to highlight what it sees as `su-raj' or `good governance' offered by it.

Mr. Naqvi insisted that Ayodhya and Hindutva were "not political issues'' that would be raised during the campaign, but "forcible religious conversions'' could become an issue, especially in the tribal belts of Chhattisgarh. "Our main thrust will be development and we will focus on the Congress not having anything to show for its five-year rule.''

His view was that even if the Bahujan Samaj Party were to come to some kind of formal or informal seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh or Chhattisgarh, it would have "no effect'' on the BJP's prospects.

He was critical of the Congress for "looking around'' for election partners when nominations are to begin soon. As for the BJP it was "confident'' that it would be able to win the elections on its own strength without any allies.

About the BJP depending on its National Democratic Alliance partners to help it pull through Lok Sabha elections next year, he said "that was a different matter'' as it was a "pre-poll alliance'' with a common agenda. At the same time, in response to a question, he refused to state categorically that the BJP would refuse to form governments through any post-poll arrangements with other parties. That was a matter that would be looked at after the results were out, he added. He pointed out that in Uttar Pradesh the BJP had entered into a post-poll alliance with the BSP and other parties "only after the Samajwadi Party failed to form a government for two months after the results were declared''.

The BJP Central Election Committee will also meet on November 7 and 8 to fine-tune election strategy and review the feedback from the States.

And before the selection of candidates begins, a high-level party meeting on October 29 would review the political situation in the five States.

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