The Hindu : BJP poll panel to meet today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 03, 2003

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National

BJP poll panel to meet today

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 2. The Bharatiya Janata Party would begin the exercise of selecting candidates for the coming Assembly elections, with its central election committee (CEC) meeting here tomorrow and the day after.

With the Congress bringing out the list for the December 1 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP top leadership would get an opportunity to fine-tune the selection of party nominees for the State.

The BJP would also have to work out a counter to the challenge from the Bahujan Samaj Party. After snapping its ties with the BJP, the BSP has vowed to work against its former ally in these polls. The CEC is also expected to discuss the candidates for the Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Rajasthan Assembly elections, where nominations close on November 14.

Ahead of the CEC meeting, top BJP leaders met this evening at the residence of the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Besides Mr. Vajpayee, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, and the BJP chief, M. Venkaiah Naidu, were present.

The party units of the States going to polls had been asked to finalise the names and send the list for consideration by the CEC meet, which would be attended by Mr. Vajpayee, Mr. Advani, the Union Ministers, Jaswant Singh and Murli Manohar Joshi, the BJP chief, Mr. Naidu, the party general secretaries, Pramod Mahajan, Sanjay Joshi and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, among others.

Besides finalising the list of candidates, the CEC would also discuss the poll strategy in each of the States, especially the four in Hindi-speaking ones. The BJP is keen on regaining power in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where its government was voted out of office in the 1998 Assembly elections. Chhattisgarh, which was formed in 2000, was then part of undivided MP.

Earlier, BJP leaders said the party would focus on "mis-governance and corruption'' in the Congress-ruled States and juxtapose it with the "achievements'' of the BJP-led Central Government.

VHP stand

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad today said it would not boycott any party in the polls. But it suggested that the BJP had in mind the "Hindutva agenda'' to get the support of the majority community. Talking to correspondents at a function, the VHP leader, Ashok Singhal, reiterated that the outfit had no specific strategy, and criticised the BJP for not following up its commitment on issues such as Ram Janmabhoomi and legislation to ban cow slaughter.

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