The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Civic polls: BJP to go it alone

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 30, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Civic polls: BJP to go it alone

Special Correspondent

However, if need be, district units can join hands with Janata Dal (S)

Two-day meeting of district-level panels begins
It will study party’s strengths and weaknesses

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Strategy session: (From left) Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, BJP State unit president D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Health Minister R. Ashok at the meeting of the district-level election management committees of the party in Bangalore on Wednesday.

BANGALORE: Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party are learnt to have made it clear to their district units that the party would go it alone in the upcoming elections to the urban local bodies. However, if there is a need, the party district units can join hands with coalition partner the Janata Dal (S).

According to sources in the party, such a decision was conveyed at the party’s two-day meeting of the district-level election management committees, which commenced on Wednesday to analyse the party’s strengths and weaknesses in each district. However, a majority of the party leaders expressed the view that the party should fight the elections on its own.

The party senior leaders reportedly told the district units that they should take the polls as a challenge as its outcome would be a pointer to the next elections to the Legislative Assembly. Sources said that the senior leaders even asked the district units to be ready to face any elections, including those for the Lok Sabha and the State Assembly. In this context, the leaders asked the district units to field such candidates who could win the polls. “The main aim should be to come to power in the maximum number of civic bodies,” the district units were told.

Leaders, including State unit president D.V. Sadananda Gowda and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, asked the party functionaries and district units to highlight the development works taken up by the Government. A passing reference to the issue of transfer of power was also made at the meeting. The senior leaders told the district units to be confident on the transfer of power. “If the power transfer does not take place, the BJP would still be in an advantageous position,” the leaders observed.

The meeting would continue on Thursday. The party has already finalised a programme for undertaking a campaign from September 1 in all the urban local bodies that are going to the polls.

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