The Hindu : Kerala News : Antony's yatra affecting administration: BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 24, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Antony's yatra affecting administration: BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 23. The BJP State president, P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, said here today that the `Navodhana Yatra' being taken out by the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, was morally, legally and politically wrong.

The BJP leader told a press conference that the administration had been paralysed as the Chief Minister and Ministers were on the yatra. No alternate arrangements had been made to run the administration. Cabinet meetings and decisions on important matters had been postponed. The official machinery was being misused for the yatra, he said.

Moreover, the Chief Minister was using a goods vehicle for his yatra. Using such vehicles for carrying people amounted breach of provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.

Asked about the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, taking out similar yatra, Mr. Pillai said Mr. Advani had interrupted the yatra to do Government work in between.

The Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, was only addressing a single campaign meeting a day so that he could carry out his official work. He said that the yatra was going to be the Waterloo of the Congress as people had realised that they were being hoodwinked. For the first time, the Congress leaders had to state that its votes would not erode. After the yatra left Kasaragod, the District Council member of the Congress, K. Narayana Bhatt, and 5,000 others had joined the BJP. In Ernakulam, 250 Christian families belonging to the Jacobite, Latin Catholic and Orthodox Churches were joining the party. They would be given membership by the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, at a function being organised by a `minority morcha' in Ernakulam on April 25.

Asked whether having a `minority morcha' in the party reflected segregation, Mr. Pillai said that it was how the party developed leadership. It had several other `morchas' as feeder organisations.He said that it was clear that the CPI(M) did not want a Congress rout in the State as was clear from the Leader of the Opposition's statement. The party was not bringing its national leaders for any intense campaign in the State. People would give a fitting reply to the opportunistic stand of the two Fronts in the State, he said.

Mr. Pillai did not comment on the controversy over the Elavoor Thookam. It was a serious issue involving Thantra Sastra. Neither he nor the party had studied the issue in detail Replying to a question, he said the SNDP was not going to split over support to the BJP. The BJP was not trying to bring any social organisation into its camp.

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