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BJP rejects prediction of tough fight

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 6. Targeting Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where 120 Lok Sabha seats are at stake, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today assigned the task of coordinating the party's strategy in Uttar Pradesh to its general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, and named the Union Agriculture Minister, Rajnath Singh, to manage election affairs in Bihar.

Mr. Mahajan and the Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, were also named ``special emissaries'' to talk to alliance partners in case of problems. The BJP president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, told reporters that Mr. Jaitley would also be the coordinator for Karnataka and the party's vice-president, Pyarelal Khandelwal, for Orissa.

Sanjay Joshi, organising secretary, will coordinate on organisational issues at the headquarters and assist the party chief during the elections. The decisions were taken today at a meeting of top BJP leaders at the residence of the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The two-hour long meeting took stock of the poll scenario in the entire country.

Describing reports of a purported internal survey that had predicted a tough fight for the party in Uttar Pradesh as ``wrong'', Mr. Naidu said the assessment was that the party would ``improve'' its performance in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam.

In Karnataka, where Assembly elections would also be held simultaneously, the party was aiming to form the Government, he said.

In Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the party would gain ``marginally'' and improve its tally in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.

The two-day central election committee of the BJP is slated to meet here on March 14 and 15. Asked if there would be any alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Mr. Naidu said the BJP's Assam unit favoured going it alone, but no final decision had been taken.

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