National

Don’t be overconfident, Advani tells partymen

NEW DELHI: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani on Saturday cautioned his colleagues in the BJP against overconfidence in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.

He said the political environment was favourable to a “change.”

Party spokesman Prakash Javadekar told journalists that Mr. Advani, addressing a BJP election management committee meeting here, said people wanted change. And while referring to the 2004 Lok Sabha election results, Mr. Advani warned against overconfidence. He said that even in 2004, the political environment favoured the National Democratic Alliance, but it lost.

The party decided that State units pay attention to the electoral roll revision now under way in several States. They were asked to organise conventions of first-time voters in each Lok Sabha constituency. Senior leaders would review the “action plan” for election preparedness in each State.

Earlier, the party’s Central Election Committee decided to re-nominate the two sitting MPs from Arunachal Pradesh — Kiren Rijiju and Tapir Gao — in their constituencies, West Arunachal and East Arunachal.

Mr. Javadekar said the committee did discuss seats in Uttar Pradesh but decided not to finalise and announce candidates in view of the “fluid political situation.”

The election committee would meet next on July 28.

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