The Hindu : BJP denies plan to resurrect Ayodhya issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 22, 2003

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National

BJP denies plan to resurrect Ayodhya issue

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUCHI NOV. 21. The BJP president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, today disputed media reports that his party planned to resurrect the issues of Ram Janmabhoomi, a uniform civil code and the abrogation of Article 370 in the coming Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya, and asserted that the party would fight the elections based on the performance of the NDA Government and the `failure' of the Opposition.

He said: "These three issues are dear to our heart. But we will not use them as poll issues". Mr. Naidu was addressing cadre at the end of the State-level BJP training camp at Vayalur near here today. Urging them to work towards securing at least 300 seats for the BJP in the next Parliamentary elections, Mr. Naidu said that was a difficult but not impossible.

The BJP president said the Congress camp had become nervous and panicky after the Gujarat poll outcome. That was evident from the sudden decision of the party to replace Vilashrao Deshmuk as Maharashtra Chief Minister. By making Sushilkumar Shinde as Chief Minister, the Congress was playing the Dalit card.

`POTO misapplied'

Referring to the complaints of POTA being misused and the demand for its scrapping, Mr. Naidu said the BJP had made it amply clear that using POTA against the MDMK leader, Vaiko, was a misapplication. In the larger interest of the country, such stringent laws were needed to end terrorism and militancy.

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