NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party is most likely to hold its next national executive committee meeting in early September in Dehradun, the capital of Uttaranchal, where Assembly elections are due early next year.

Party sources said the probable dates for the three-day meet would be September 7 to 9, although a final decision is yet to be taken.

Party president Rajnath Singh has already said the BJP hoped to form a government in the hill state carved out of Uttar Pradesh. It currently holds only 19 seats in the 70-strong Assembly.

The party's MP from Garhwal, Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, has indicated that there are no plans for the BJP to tie up with any party or group in the State. It is preparing to battle it alone in the poll, and a national executive meet in Dehradun will boost its prospects through the presence of the party brass here for three days.

The BJP has alleged that `corruption levels' in the hill State have reached an `all-time high.' Some of its charges are: money from the Chief Minister's discretionary fund money was being given to most undeserving people; while the law forbids more than 12 Ministers in all, the Congress Chief Minister Narain Dutt Tiwari has created as many as 275 posts carrying the Minister of State rank, complete with bungalows and `lal batti' (red lights on top of their official cars).

The BJP hopes to derive an advantage from the faction-ridden Congress, with the two rival groups being led by Mr. Tiwari and Harish Rawat.

Development

Mr. Khanduri said the people of the new State carved out during the National Democratic Alliance government's tenure had very high aspirations, but there was `zero development.'

Hydel projects

"Uttaranchal has high potential for developing hydel power projects, but no work has been done on this front; tourism could have been developed in a big way, but again no sign of any work here," he claimed.

Uttaranchal is one of the four States, where Assembly elections are due in February next year. The others are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur. There is no sign of a BJP revival in U.P. and in Punjab the dominant NDA partner is the Akali Dal.

Any BJP success in Punjab will depend on the Akali Dal.

Only in Uttaranchal the BJP can entertain any hope for a satisfactory electoral performance on its own.

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