BANGALORE: State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on Tuesday said they are ready to face elections to the taluk and zilla panchayats. The party's convention of slum dwellers and backward classes to be held here on October 28 will help galvanise the organisation.

Addressing a meeting of district-level office-bearers of the party here, BJP General Secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar, MP, said the BJP will give a fitting reply to what he called the vote-bank politics of the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) by organising slum dwellers and the backward classes. The convention will expose the failures of the Government on many issues during its 16 months in office, he said.

Mr. Kumar told the office-bearers to organise district-level conventions, which will help the party prepare for the taluk and zilla panchayat polls.

State BJP President Jagadish Shettar and General Secretary K.S. Eshwarappa spoke of the failure of the Government in handling flood-relief measures and said many people who lost their houses and crops are yet to receive compensation.

Mr. Shettar said the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda has been misleading slum dwellers and backward classes by making empty promises and raking up the issue of internal reservation.

Katta Subramanya Naidu, MLA and convener of the party's Slum Morcha, said there are 475 slums in Bangalore, and all of them do not have basic facilities such as drainage, drinking water, schools, toilets and electricity.

H.T. Sangliana, MP; R. Ashok, MLA; and Aravind Limbavali, MLC, were present.

`Sangharsha Yatra'

Mr. Shettar said party leaders led by Mr. Kumar and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly B.S. Yediyurappa will embark on a 10-day Statewide "Sangharsha Yatra" from October 14 to highlight the failures of the Government.

The yatra will begin from Kolar and end at Gadag on October 23.

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