The Hindu : Cong. on a weak wicket: BJP chief

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 08, 2002

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National

Cong. on a weak wicket: BJP chief

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Dec. 7. The Gujarat elections are "very important" because they will decide which of the two — nationalism or "bogus secularism'' — will emerge stronger, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, has said.

He also expressed the confidence that the party would secure a two-thirds majority in the December elections to the State Assembly.

At a press conference here today, Mr. Naidu alleged that the "pseudo secularism'' practised by the Congress had bred communalism in the country and created misunderstanding and mistrust between the majority and minority communities. While it had faulted the BJP for raking up Godhra in the ongoing campaign, it had little or no qualms in incorporating Godhra in its manifesto.

"They want memories of Ayodhya to be kept alive 10 years after, but we are not supposed to talk about Godhra which occurred recently.''

At the behest of the Congress, the All-India Muslim Ulema Council had issued an appeal to the Muslim community to vote for the Congress nominees and defeat the BJP.

Mr. Naidu said the Congress was on a "weak wicket'' on many grounds in Gujarat. Its president, Sonia Gandhi, who had criticised the BJP, started her campaign at Ambaji temple and its leaders were seen in the company of "sadhus and sants,'' discreetly avoiding Muslim leaders in public programmes.

Charging that the Congress lacked good and "original'' leadership, Mr. Naidu said that was the reason why it had propped up Shankersinh Waghela, expelled by the BJP, and put up another expelled leader against the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, at Maninagar.

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