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No erosion in BJP vote base: Pillai

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI SEPT. 30. The BJP State president, P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, has said the vote base of the party was not eroded in the Ernakulam by-election.

Addressing newspersons at a press conference here today, Mr.Pillai admitted that the performance of the party did not live up to its expectations.

The party had found that V.Viswanatha Menon was the most suitable candidate for the party's support during the by-election.

The `unholy nexus' of the CPI(M) and the Congress was exposed by the party, he said. He pooh-poohed the KPCC chief, K. Muraleedharan's concern over the BJP's `deteriorating' vote base.

Mr. Pillai pointed out that the party had got 43,000 votes in the last Assembly election, which was six per cent on an average, and claimed that the percentage of votes the party had got in the just-concluded by-election was seven per cent.

In contrast, the Congress had lost the Ernakulam and the Solapur seats, a fact which should cause serious concern to the Congress, which had decided to join hands with anyone to oust the Vajpayee-led BJP Government, he said.

The BJP was not organisationally strong in Ernakulam, and the party could depute its representatives to only one-third of the polling booths during the by-election, he said.

According to Mr. Pillai, the LDF victory was a result of the secret support it received from the Muslim League, the Karunakaran group and Jama-at-e-Islami.

The party was moving on the right track to face the forthcoming Assembly elections in five States, he added.

Mr.Pillai admitted that some of the statements made by Mr. Menon had created some confusion.

He clarified that there was no tie-up with the Janakeeya Vedi led by V.B.Cheriyan in the by-election.

Mr. Menon was an independent candidate and there was no `joint candidate' as such, he said.

Asked whether similar `experiments' would be repeated in the future, Mr.Pillai replied that `politics is the art of the possible'.

The BJP State representatives will meet in Palakkad on September 11 and 12 to assess the performance of the party in the by-elections, he said.

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