The Hindu : BJP undecided on making Ayodhya a poll issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 13, 2003

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BJP undecided on making Ayodhya a poll issue

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 12. A two-hour long central election campaign committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party met here today and decided that by mid-August the political "charge-sheets'' on the four Congress-ruled States going to polls this year would be ready, but it was undecided on mentioning Ayodhya in its State election manifestos.

The "charge-sheets'' would be a signal for the party to start a full-throated campaign against the "mis-governance'' in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi even as the BJP plans to project its own ideas of "vikas'' (development) and "su-raj'' (good governance). Security-related issues would also be taken up during the campaign.

In Mizoram, the fifth State going to the polls, the two major political parties are not directly pitted against each other and this is not a State on the priority list of the BJP which has little presence in the North-East.

While in the three States the BJP has finalised its own Chief Ministerial candidates — Uma Bharati in Madhya Pradesh, Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan and Madanlal Khurana in Delhi — there is no unanimity on the "leadership'' of the party in Chhattisgarh where there are several contenders for the job. The BJP has directed its State units to start preparing points for the manifestos and detailed discussions were held today on possible election issues in the States going to polls. Party spokesperson, M.A. Naqvi, said the issue of an all-India ban on cow slaughter could figure in the manifestos of some States, but he was not willing to say `yes' or `no' when asked whether the Ayodhya issue would find mention.

He said possible alliances were not discussed as the party was preparing "to go it alone'' in the Assembly polls.

The party is expected to play up corruption and, the Chattisgarh Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, could become one of its main targets. The three epithets to be used to describe Congress rule would be `ghoos, ghotala aur ghamand' (governments full of bribe-takers, scams and false pride).

The committee meeting was chaired by the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, and general secretary in-charge of elections, Pramod Mahajan, was the convenor.

Some kind of work allocation was finalised today — Balbir Punj would be in charge of readying the "charge-sheets'', finalising tours by party leaders would be taken care of by Mr. Naqvi, and an additional spokesperson, Prakash Javadekar, was appointed today.

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