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Hindutva factor helped BJP: Basu

By Malabika Bhattacharya

Kolkata Dec. 6. The CPI (M) politburo member, Jyoti Basu, says that the Hindutva factor helped the BJP romp home in three States in the just-concluded Assembly elections and that the party's victory would impact on the coming Lok Sabha elections."I think it's Hindutva, more than anything else, that helped them in such a big way in the three states," Mr. Basu said.

In conversation with The Hindu, Mr. Basu, former West Bengal Chief Minister, said the BJP's success would have an impact on voters in the parliamentary election that was due in 2004.

"It will most certainly have an impact on the outcome of the next Lok Sabha polls."

He said that the CPI (M) had not foreseen this tremendous victory of the BJP. "We could not imagine the size of the Congress debacle before the States went to the polls."

Mr. Basu is expected to place his views on the Congress' poor showing in the polls in the CPI (M) politburo meeting which is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on December 15. He will also raise certain other crucial issues such as the factors that led to the growth of Hindutva as well as the CPI (M)'s failure to expand its influence in the Hindi belt.

The party had fielded nearly 25 candidates in those States but save one in Rajasthan, none won.

"Just imagine we depended on this Congress. We knew that it was difficult for the Congress to win Rajasthan but the washout in Madhya Pradesh was unexpected.

It appears that the party's performance in these States was extremely poor. I remember Digvijay Singh (the Congress Chief Minister of M.P.) telling me once that he would try to break our governing record in Bengal," Mr. Basu commented.

Mr. Basu declined to comment on the quality of Congress leadership saying he was certain that the party would take a hard look at its overall performance. He did not think there was any possibility of emergence of a third front as an alternative to the Congress." There is nothing called the third front," he said.

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