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Rajnath Singh calls for party’s revival

LUCKNOW: With three frontline leaders from Uttar Pradesh missing from the inaugural session of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s two-day State Executive meeting here on Saturday, party president Rajnath Singh laid strong emphasis on strengthening the organisation down to the grassroots level. He said the party workers have to show commitment for the cause of the BJP’s revival in the State.

Former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, former Human Resource Development Minister and party president Murli Manohar Joshi and former State unit chief Vinay Katiyar were conspicuous by their absence. BJP general secretary in charge of U.P. affairs Arun Jaitley reached the venue after the State unit chief Ramapati Ram Tripathi had finished his address.

Inaugurating the session at the Scientific Convention Centre here, the BJP president hit out at the workers and leaders for their laid-back approach and warned them that the party was heading the Congress way whose decline was attributed to a weak organisational structure.

Mr. Rajnath Singh said that in the past 18 years the Congress had made no contribution to the formation of a government in U.P. and the way it was placed it would take another 10 to 15 years to re-establish its political significance in the State.

Stating that a weak organisational structure was the BJP’s bane and had led to its decline, Mr. Rajnath Singh emphasised that ignoring the grassroots had contributed to the party’s dismal performance in the recent Assembly elections.

On “trifurcation” of U.P., Mr. Singh accused Chief Minister Mayawati of trying to set her political agenda without verifying the pros and cons of the move. Stating that the demand for separate states of Telangana and Vidarbha had also been made, Mr. Singh urged the Union Government to asses the viability of smaller states.

The BJP chief assailed the UPA Government at the Centre on the Indo-US nuclear deal and described it as an albatross around the Union Government’s neck. Reiterating that the BJP was opposed to the deal as India’s strategic independence would be endangered, he said that if the UPA Government had tried to remove the concerns the deal would have been clinched.

Addressing the delegates, the party’s U.P. unit president Ramapati Ram Tripathi said winning the people’s confidence was the party’s political aim as part of the bid to win the next Lok Sabha elections. He attacked the Mayawati Government and said the BJP was ready to take on the new dispensation which had let loose a reign of terror in the State.

He said the BJP was opposed to imposition of value added tax (VAT) in U.P. and attacked the Chief Minister for banning students’ union elections.

The inaugural session was attended by BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Kalraj Mishra, Lalji Tandon, Legislature Party leader Om Prakash Singh and former State unit chief Kesari Nath Tripathi. A political resolution and one on he traders’ problems was passed on the opening day.

The meeting will conclude on Sunday with senior leader Lal Krishna Advani’s address.

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