The Hindu : 'Uma Bharti will lead campaign'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 16, 2003

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National

'Uma Bharti will lead campaign'

By Lalit Shastri

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, addressing the BJP's Sankalp rally' at the Lal Parade ground in Bhopal on Saturday. - Photo. A.M. Faruqui

BHOPAL MARCH 15. The Bharatiya Janata Party president, Venkaiah Naidu, today brushed aside speculations to the contrary and announced at a massive public rally here that the senior party leader, Uma Bharti, will lead the BJP campaign for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections to be held later this year.

The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, who also addressed the rally, promptly endorsed Mr. Naidu's announcement.

Earlier, addressing the rally, the State BJP president and former Chief Minister, Kailash Joshi, proposed that the coming elections be contested under Ms. Bharti's leadership. He also went on to seek the immediate concurrence of the ``party leadership'' on this count.

The BJP rally was a virtual show of strength, as the sprawling Lal Parade ground, in the heart of the city, was filled to capacity long before Mr. Advani and Mr. Naidu arrived in Bhopal.

Prominent among those seated on the dais along with Mr. Advani and Mr. Naidu were the BJP general secretary in charge of Madhya Pradesh, Om Prakash Mathur, the Union Ministers, Vikram Verma, Sumitra Mahajan and Phaggan Singh Kulaste, the leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Babulal Gaur, the former Union Minister, Sunderlal Patwa, and the State BJP vice-president and rally convener, Gauri Shankar Shejwar, besides Mr. Joshi, Ms. Bharti.

While announcing that the coming elections would be fought under Ms. Bharti's leadership, Mr. Naidu said those who criticised `Hindutva' would get a fitting reply from the people in the coming election. ``Hindutva is the lifeline of this country.'' He said it had no religious connotation and only reflected the identity of this nation.

``After winning the semi-finals in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP will target next year's parliamentary elections and win at least 300 seats in the Lok Sabha,'' he claimed. ``Along with the coalition partners, we will get a two-thirds majority in the next elections, which would be contested on the basis of our performance.''

The Congress-ruled States such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh were grappling with the problem of starvation and Dalits and women were falling victim to various atrocities in these States, Mr. Naidu alleged.

Mr. Advani praised Ms. Bharti's ``acceptance speech'' which reflected her vision. The people were giving a new turn to Indian politics. From a mere two-member party in Parliament between 1984 and 1989, the BJP had come to be the biggest party running a coalition government at the Centre for almost five years now. The BJP shattered the myth that a coalition Government could not survive for long.

Emphasising that the Madhya Pradesh elections would be contested on the issue of development, Mr. Advani said it was unfortunate that while the whole world respected Indian democracy, ``we have a situation where the Election Commission has been forced to order the suspension of three District Collectors of Madhya Pradesh, holding them responsible for tampering with the voters' lists.''

``This is sheer rigging of the election process — something that has never happened before,'' he added.

Mr. Advani said the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, had only changed his tone. ``Pakistan has done nothing to stop cross-border terrorism''. At least 160 ISI bases had been identified in the country, he said drawing attention to the latest bomb explosion in a local train in Mumbai.

Earlier, Ms. Bharti said the Congress Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, was busy serving his own narrow interests, forgetting the welfare of the most deprived sections of the people.

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