The Hindu : National : BJP plans high decibel campaign

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Thursday, Sep 30, 2004

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National

BJP plans high decibel campaign

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 29. Carpet bomb Maharashtra with public meetings.

That seems to be the decision of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which today announced that it would hold several hundred public meetings in Maharashtra over 11 days from October 1.

The main burden of campaigning will be that of the general secretary, Pramod Mahajan, who has been meticulously planning the campaign and has covered every single constituency. He is expected to address 71 meetings, while the party's State president, Gopinath Munde, will address 60 meetings. All in all, it promises to be a high decibel campaign with loudspeakers blaring in almost every Assembly segment — and the focus, most certainly, will be what the BJP describes as the "non-performance'' of the shine Government.

Leading the list of leaders who will campaign is the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who will spend five days in the State and address six public meetings, mostly in the largest cities. The party is also trying to ensure that some of these rallies will be addressed jointly with the Shiv Sena chief, Balasaheb Thackeray.

After the Lok Sabha election results were out some senior leaders had stated that perhaps the party had over-estimated the impact of public meetings in the television and information age. However, it seems that the party is sticking to its routine election plan of meetings and more public meetings. "We have so many national leaders and, naturally, all of them will be involved in the campaign. Plus, there are Chief Ministers and film stars, cricket heroes and so on,'' a party leader said.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani, will spend only four days in the State but will address 12 meetings, while the party president, Venkaiah Naidu, will address 10 meetings over five days. Murli Manohar Joshi, will spend two days.

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