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BJP feels no more good: Gehlot

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, FEB. 21. The former Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, has said that the "feel good'' slogan of the National Democratic Alliance would boomerang given the ground realities in the country.

The Bharatiya Janata Party was having second thoughts on the efficacy of the slogan for the coming Lok Sabha elections, he noted.

"The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.Advani, himself has confessed that the `feel good' is not for all. After giving out the slogan he himself is now feeling jittery,'' Mr. Gehlot, currently in charge of Congress affairs in Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh, said here talking to a group of newspersons.

"The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had asked the party members in the Lok Sabha to seek votes on the `feel good factor', '' Mr.Gehlot noted.

The "artificial tempo'' in the wake of the BJP winning the Assembly elections from three States had prompted them to dissolve the Lok Sabha but now they were sounding a "bit unsure'' he observed.

Mr.Gehlot termed the entry of Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi and the large-scale recruitment of film and television actors into the BJP as a sign of desperation. "The persons who used to abuse the Nehru family and denigrate its legacy in the eyes of the public now want to take advantage of its goodwill. They used to call the family a dynasty as well,'' he argued.Mr.Gehlot said the Congress was not to suffer from Maneka and her son joining the BJP.

"Good riddance. As now the position is clear on this count, the Congress party will only benefit from their joining the BJP,'' he claimed.

Accusing the BJP of trying out "fascist techniques'' to confuse the public, Mr.Gehlot said the BJP president, Vekaiah Naidu's claim that his (Mr.Naidu's) party had the programmes and policies of the pre-Independence day Congress, was another attempt at misleading.

It was also a plain acceptance that the policies of the Jan Sangh and the BJP during the past 50 years had not found favour with the public, he argued.

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