Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said here on Thursday that her party concurred with the spirit of the struggle by social activist Anna Hazare against corruption and his fight for the Jan Lok Pal Bill.
She was talking to mediapersons here. Asked whether her party was in agreement with the demands made by the social activist, the BJP leader said, “the spirit is right. The content of the Bill can be discussed in detail.”
According to her, the party had called upon Mr. Hazare to call off his fast. The UPA should now call an all-party meeting to discuss
the Bill in detail, she said. The government has framed a model Bill and activists have framed their own version. The details can be finalised at the meeting, she said. However, there were no two opinions that the Bill should have enough teeth to effectively stem corruption, she added.
Ms. Swaraj, who is the BJP leader in charge of the elections in the southern States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry , said in Kerala, her party was contesting to function as an ‘effective Opposition.' The functioning of the BJP at the Centre, both in the Rajya Sabha and the
Lok Sabha, had brought out the importance of an efficient Opposition to ensure effective functioning of democracy, she said. In the so-far bipolar politics of Kerala , the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) were engaged in scoring political points on the floor of the House relegating the burning issues of the common man to the backburner.
“The party has accepted the ground realities in Kerala and we are not contesting the elections with the aim of forming a government in the State. We want to be an effective Opposition,” she said. She hoped that ‘a good number of MLAs' would be returned to the Assembly.
Ms. Swaraj said in Kerala, the party would use the elections as a platform to increase its vote share and return an impressive number of persons to the House to function as an effective Opposition. However, the BJP will not align with either front, she said. To another question, she said the party has ‘appealed' to the Nair Service Society (NSS) and the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam to lend support to the BJP candidates whereever “they” preferred. “They can support candidates of their choice, not our choice,” Ms. Swaraj said. She said she had no plans to visit the NSS and SNDP Yogam leaders.
Ms. Swaraj addressed an election rally in Kottayam, before leaving for Aranmula.
