The Hindu : BJP plans "people's campaign"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 11, 2004

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National

BJP plans "people's campaign"

By Neena Vyas

HYDERABAD, JAN. 10. The nitty gritty of a "people's campaign" for the coming Lok Sabha elections will be finalised at the Bharatiya Janata Party's national executive committee meeting starting here tomorrow.

The party is also planning to virtually convert the elections into a presidential contest — Vajpayee versus Sonia Gandhi or as the BJP president, Venkaiah Naidu, put it the other day, Vajpayee versus a question mark, since the "leader" on the other side was undecided.

Instead of a manifesto, the BJP is toying with the idea of unfolding a "vision for the future of India" before the people and although as yet undecided, most probably it will be a joint NDA vision that will be presented.

"We want to involve the people in this election campaign to make it a people's campaign," Mr. Naidu told . "By this I mean that prominent people other than party workers and sympathisers will be involved directly in the election campaign to appeal to the people to make it their campaign to re-elect the Vajpayee Government," he said.

The slogans for the propaganda blitz have yet to be finalised, but the "thrust" would be something like this: "Vajpayee ko wapis lana hai, Vikas ko badhana hai (Vajpayee must be brought back to give a push to development)." The slogans, Mr. Naidu said, "must concretise the present mood of the people," which he saw as pro-Vajpayee and pro-India.

To give the campaign the feel of a direct presidential contest, the party plans to focus on "qualities of leadership."

By doing this, the BJP hopes, it may not have to directly bring in the question of "foreign origin" of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, but "let the people judge" the leadership of the two opposing sides in the electoral arena in terms of their "wisdom" and "experience."

The question that the BJP may well ask is — whom do you want to trust the future of the country to? Vajpayee or Sonia Gandhi?

Over two days the BJP national executive committee meeting will focus its attention on the coming polls, for there is hardly any doubt at all that the executive will unanimously "recommend" early polls to the Government. Since both the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and, indeed the entire BJP component of the Cabinet, will be party to that "recommendation," the Government is bound to accept it.

The executive will then approve a "blueprint" for "action 2004" to make "Mission 2004" a success. The "blueprint" will be placed before the presidents and organising secretaries of the State units at a meeting in Hyderabad on January 13 after the conclusion of the executive committee meet.

"Prabharis" (those in-charge of political affairs) of the States will be present, as will Mr. Naidu and Mr. Advani. Mr. Naidu said that the "blueprint" would be a calendar of political events — constituency-level conferences, district-level meetings, tours by the central party leaders, appointment of special "prabharis" for the States for elections, and the "distribution" of work among party office-bearers and Ministers.

State-by-State the party will assess its prospects and those of its allies. The chances of getting new allies — the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu; the return of Kalyan Singh, leader of the Rashtriya Kranti Dal, to the BJP; the possibility of the Nationalist Congress Party splinter group headed by former Lok Sabha Speaker, P. Sangma, tying up with the BJP — will also be explored.

A question mark also hangs over a possible alliance in Assam with the Asom Gana Parishad, but the BJP State unit would prefer to go it alone, senior party leaders have disclosed.

"We will make a concerted effort to focus on development for we feel we are on a strong wicket," Mr. Naidu said. But he added that the party "will not shy away from speaking on Hindutva, that is, issues dear to its heart." He also said that as far as possible, the BJP and the NDA would conduct a "positive campaign," asking for votes "on the basis of work done by the Vajpayee Government."

It would seem that the "revival" of talk about an Ayodhya solution was part of this background Hindutva that is expected to stoke the election campaign fires. This would also be useful to the party to get the Sangh Parivar outfits join the campaign enthusiastically.

All through the time Mr. Naidu has been party president he has made it a point to regularly meet the Sangh leadership and keep their concerns in mind.

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