The Hindu : National : Govindacharya to lead protest march to Parliament

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

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National

Govindacharya to lead protest march to Parliament

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 17. The former leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, K.N. Govindacharya, said today that his newly floated Rashtriya Swabhiman Aandolan would march in protest to the Rashtrapati Bhavan tomorrow to register its disapproval of any move to install the "foreign born'' Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, as the country's Prime Minister. He has also called a "nationwide hartal.''

Mr. Govindacharya, who fell out with the outgoing Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for describing him as a `mukhota' (mask), was later forced to resign from the primary membership of the BJP. His appeals to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at that time to come to his rescue proved futile and the RSS leaders distanced themselves from him and his activities.

Mr. Govindacharya's statements are being seen by those close to the Sangh Parivar as an attempt by it to get him reinducted into the BJP — he had paid a visit to the RSS headquarters here at Jhandewalan and got the approval of its leaders for his first statement on the "foreign origin'' issue made yesterday — although the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, today denied there was this move.

It is possible that Mr. Govindacharya's return to the BJP could be resisted by several BJP leaders, including Mr. Naidu, Pramod Mahajan and even Sushma Swaraj and Jaswant Singh. None of them like Mr. Govindacharya's `pracharak' approach to politics.

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