Chandigarh: Buoyed by electoral successes in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani said on Sunday that his party was on the comeback trail as the people were eager to vote out the “dysfunctional” Congress-led United Progressive Alliance regime at the Centre.

Addressing a press conference here on his return from Shimla, Mr. Advani said the UPA regime had been “dysfunctional and paralysed” for the past six months due to squabbles with the Left, particularly on the India-U.S. nuclear deal.

“Earlier, I thought general elections may be held somewhere in early 2008. But after our electoral successes, the UPA may hold them later next year or [in] early 2009,” he said.

Mr. Advani who had been to Shimla to attend the swearing-in of Prem Kumar Dhumal as the Chief Minister of Himachal, said the poll outcome in Gujarat and the hill state would change the country’s political scene. “The disappointing patch between 2004 and 2007 is over for us,” he said.

The Leader of the Oppostion in the Lok Sabha alleged that the Congress party and its pseudo-secular supporters sought to convert the Gujarat elections into some kind of national referendum on communalism versus secularism. “The Gujarat elections were no ordinary elections. The way Congress pumped all its energy and money [into them] was phenomenal. They tried to divert people’s attention from good governance but ultimately they failed miserably in their effort,” he said.

Mr. Advani said that of the six Assembly elections held this year, the Congress had won only in Goa. He said the people would make the BJP victorious in Karnataka, where it “became a victim of opportunism, of betrayal” and where it was hoping the polls would be held in April next. “The nation is paying a very heavy price for having a non-performing government headed by the weakest-ever Prime Minister in India’s history. The Prime Minister’s Office has been so devalued that his [PM’s] writ does not run even in his own Cabinet..,” he alleged.

He claimed that the UPA regime had failed to keep its own house in order as also to tackle the issues of terrorism, price rise and those pertaining to farmers among others.

“The UPA government’s worst failure has been in the area of internal security. Its soft approach to terrorism, guided by vote-bank considerations, has emboldened the forces of jehadi terrorism,” he said. — PTI

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