The Hindu : BJP meet to focus on Assembly polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 04, 2003

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BJP meet to focus on Assembly polls

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 3. The Bharatiya Janata Party's national executive committee meeting in Indore for two days from tomorrow will focus on the Assembly elections later this year and the war in Iraq.

The party's general secretaries met in Indore today to finalise the programme for the rather short, one-and-a-half day, executive meeting, which will be attended by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani.

Indore has been chosen, as Madhya Pradesh is one of the four crucial States going to the elections in October-November.

After its defeat at the hustings in Himachal Pradesh, one of the key issues for the BJP is discipline in the party at all levels and zero tolerance of infighting. Already, this message has been sent out clearly by the party through the show-cause notice issued to the Union Minister, Shanta Kumar, for his alleged role in Himachal Pradesh, where he has been at loggerheads with the now defeated former Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal.

Party leaders indicate that the BJP will be relying heavily on the anti-incumbency factor at work in all the four States where Assembly elections are due — Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi — as all the States have Congress Governments.

In fact, senior leaders who blamed anti-incumbency for the defeat in Himachal have said they hoped the same factor would work in the BJP's favour in the next round of elections.

After the Supreme Court rejection of the Centre's plea on the acquired land in Ayodhya, the BJP's "saffron" plank has received a jolt; nevertheless, the party will be raising all sorts of issues.

A Central legislation to ban cow slaughter throughout the country, already promised by the Government, could be enacted well before the elections to give a boost to the saffron campaign led in Madhya Pradesh by Uma Bharati, the party's Chief Ministerial candidate. In Rajasthan, the perceived under-performance of the Ashok Gehlot Congress Government, especially in handling the drought last year, is expected to be a major poll plank in the campaign to be led by Vasundhara Raje.

On Iraq, the party is of the view that it could go slightly further in expressing its disapproval of the military attack led by the United States and Britain.

The party is aware of the fact that there is a strong anti-war, anti-American sentiment in the country and that the Government stance has not reflected this.

"We could adopt a resolution which will be closer to the people's perception of this war in Iraq," a senior party leader said.

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