The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP goes into “election mode”

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Saturday, Sep 01, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

BJP goes into “election mode”

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s top leadership is convinced that any “patchwork solution” that might come out of the United Progressive Alliance-Left nuclear committee cannot paper over the cracks that have appeared. It has declared that the party should prepare for a Lok Sabha election well before the end of the present government’s term in May 2009.

After a two-hour meeting of the party’s core committee on Friday evening, general secretary Arun Jaitley announced that the BJP was now in “election mode” and would prepare for an early Lok Sabha poll both politically and organisationally.

The meeting, chaired by party president Rajnath Singh, was attended by the party’s top brass — L.K. Advani, Jaswant Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Venkaiah Naidu, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Ram Lal, Gopinath Munde and Ananth Kumar, among others. An office-bearers’ meeting is to be held on Saturday forenoon to take forward the core committee’s decision to put the party machinery into election gear.

BJP leaders have reached the conclusion that the differences between the UPA and its supporting Left parties will leave cracks wide open despite the best efforts of the two sides to paper them over. This will lead to mid-term elections.

The Opposition party’s view is that the Prime Minister’s decision-making authority stands eroded as a result of differences over the nuclear deal. It is of the view that these soured relations cannot be mended and it is a matter of time before one party or the other decides to go to the polls.

If an early election is indeed around the corner, the BJP will have to pay special attention to the several States it is ruling where anti-incumbency can be a factor. These include Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In some other States it will depend on its allies to pull it through — the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa, the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar and the Akali Dal in Punjab. It is also aware that it must move quickly to repair its damaged relationship with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, where the party’s State unit is for going it alone.

Whether there is a mid-term Lok Sabha election or not, elections to the Gujarat Assembly are due later this year, and this will present the first test for the BJP and the Congress, which is the main Opposition party in the State. It is learnt that at a recent meeting between Mr. Jaitley, election in-charge of Gujarat, and the former CM and mentor of dissidents, Keshubhai Patel, the in-fighting in the State was discussed. Mr. Patel informed Mr. Jaitley about the seething anger in the party against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the threat held out by a large number of MLAs that they would quit the party rather than accepting Mr. Modi’s leadership again.

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