The Hindu : `BJP to project Centre's achievement'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 08, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

`BJP to project Centre's achievement'

KANNUR JAN. 7. The State president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, has said that his party will project before the people of the State the achievements of the Vajpayee Government over the past five years as its campaign theme in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP would present before the people here the balance sheet of the Vajpayee Government to allow them to contrast it with the 50 years of the Congress-led and Communist party-led Ministries in the State, the BJP chief said while addressing a meet-the-press organised by the Press Club here today. Almost all the newspapers had commented positively on the Vajpayee Government's achievements in the economic front, he said adding that many of these newspapers had also dwelt recently on the bleak economic situation prevailing in the State.

Presenting figures to prove his claim, Mr. Pillai said that while there was a giant leap in the country's food production, that of the State recorded a one-fourth drop over the past few years. While the export from the country recorded a 20 per cent growth, that from the State came down by half per cent. The country's foreign exchange reserve achieved an all-time record of Rs.45,000 crores, he said.

Stating that the State's economy had been in tatters as a result of the successive rule of the State by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF), Mr. Pillai said that factional rivalry had now been presented as the major issues for public debate in the State. Stating that nobody was now talking about development in the State, he said that the UDF Government had nothing to project as its plus point over the past two-and-a-half years of its rule.

The UDF white paper exposed that the State had a debt of Rs.23,000 crores and a revenue deficit of Rs.4,000 crores, he said adding that the debt had now gone upto Rs.30,000 crores and the deficit was being covered by deposits in the Treasury. "The UDF Government has failed in all fronts, from agriculture to sports," the BJP State president said. He said that social security in the State was also facing threat.

Stating that the Vajpayee Government had recorded tremendous achievements in the telecom, transport sectors and agriculture sectors over the past five years, he exuded the confidence that the electorate in the State would give a mandate favourable for Vajpayee's leadership. Kerala was now fit for the BJP, he added.

Asked if the BJP had found in Mr. Vajpayee its greatest asset and abandoned contentious issues such as Ayodhya, Mr. Pillai said that though the Ayodhya issue had been a sentimental one for the BJP, the party would project development as the core issue in the election campaign.

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