Date:17/12/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/12/17/stories/2002121705381100.htm

National

BJP national executive postponed

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC 16. The national executive committee meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been re-scheduled for December 23 and 24, the party general secretary, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, announced today.

Earlier, the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, had cleared the dates for the executive on December 22 and 23, to be held here.

But in view of the decision (reportedly made by the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi) to organise his swearing-in ceremony in Gandhinagar on December 22, the executive has had to be postponed.

Both the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.Advani, besides Mr. Naidu and other senior leaders are planning to travel to Gujarat for the swearing-in ceremony.

The executive committee will not only analyse the Gujarat election victory in detail, but will also begin planning its strategy for the next electoral battle in Himachal Pradesh. A discussion on the "Gujarat experiment'' is also expected, and there will be many partymen who l want the BJP to own up Hindutva unabashedly.

Mr. Naidu has already said: "We do not have to be apologetic about Hindutva''. And as in Gujarat, to help it along, the party would necessarily take all help from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other organisations from the RSS stable.

The VHP is also expected to pressure the Centre on its pet project, the Ram temple in Ayodhya, and moves could be set afoot once again to hand over some of the government-acquired land in and around the disputed complex in Ayodhya to the trust controlled by the VHP.