Southern States - Kerala   

Situation conducive for third front: BJP

By Our Staff Reporter

KOLLAM April 27. The BJP president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, has said that there exists a fertile political situation in Kerala for the launch of a third front.

Addressing a `Meet-the-Press' programme organised by the Kollam Press Club today, he said that the people of Kerala were yearning for an alternative to the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

Mr. Naidu said the BJP intended fulfilling this desire of the people by moving in the direction of mobilising those sections that were tired of the two fronts, experimented over the years.

The people of the State were disappointed with ``the divided UDF'' and the ``retrograde and anti-development LDF''.

``We will tell such disillusioned sections not to go in for further experiments and instead go for the third alternative which the BJP intends to launch. The BJP will warmly welcome those political parties genuinely interested in joining hands with the party's efforts in this regard. We at the same time do not intend poaching into any party for the purpose,'' Mr. Naidu said.

Remarkable changes are happening on the political scenario in the country. A few years ago could anybody imagine that the BJP would turn out to be a force to reckon with in Tamil Nadu. The same is the case with the BJP's growth in Nagaland. The party had registered an impressive growth in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to such an extent that the lone Member of Parliament, the district panchayat president and the municipal chairman of Port Blair are all from the BJP, he said.

He said that in the coming days, the Kerala unit of his party would reach out to even those who had been keeping a distance from it for whatever reasons. Steps would be in the direction of convincing them that the BJP had an able leadership that had provided a stable Government marked by a credible performance, he said.

To a question whether in the process of launching the third alternative in Kerala, the BJP was desperately seeking the support of organisations like the SNDP and the NSS, Mr. Naidu said that these were absolutely baseless.

Mr. Naidu said the `excellent governance and overall development' by the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre would be the main campaign plank of his party for the coming Assembly elections and the Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year.

He said the progress of the NDA Government was unquestionably excellent and hence the BJP could, with all pride and confidence, make it the main thrust of the campaign for the coming elections. ``We have many things to our credit,'' he said.

``We would ask the voters to compare and analyse the 47 years of Congress rule and the five-year BJP-led rule,'' he said.

The people gave us a limited mandate and with that we not only did an excellent work but also provided a stable Government marked by creditable performance.

Therefore, if the people would give us a comfortable mandate in the next round, we would find ourselves in a better position to enable the country attain the level of a developed nation, he said.

Asked about the BJP's assessment of organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the activities of the VHP leader, Praveen Togadia, he said that it was not mandatory on the part of the BJP to accept what the VHP dictates. The VHP was a religious organisation having its own carte blanche. He, later, inaugurated the newly-constructed district committee office of the BJP.

The inaugural function was presided over by the BJP district secretary, K. Sivadasan. The BJP State president, C.K. Padmanabhan, the party's national executive committee member, P.B. Acharya, and the party leaders, K. Raman Pillai, P.P. Mukundan and Rachel Mathai, addressed.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Situation conducive for third front: BJP
• Can vested forests be legally given to tribals?
• Self-financing colleges: look to China for answers
• DYFI call to boycott multinationals
• `Govt. keen on Kochi Skybus project'

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu