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BJP identifies core issues for poll campaign

Neena Vyas

Agriculture crisis, inflation, terrorism among key factors
Identification of new allies a critical issue

NEW DELHI: In preparation for the next general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party has identified the core issues to take up during the campaign.

Senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu said a few days ago to The Hindu that the party had identified the agriculture crisis, inflation, especially increase in prices of essential commodities, terrorism and the alleged minority appeasement as the main points around which the Opposition campaign will turn.

He added that if some major development took place between now and the Lok Sabha election, it would also be taken up.

The party is also in the process of preparing an agriculture policy document. But, some salient points are already available. It wants the interest rate on loans to farmers to be further reduced to 4 per cent from 7.

At a recent rally in Jind, Haryana, party president Rajnath Singh promised the crowd that if the National Democratic Alliance government were to be elected, the interest rate would be reduced.

Price rise was one of the major issues that helped it to win a number of State assemblies last year. This was an issue the party focussed on, even at times when the inflation rate had not been much higher than it was during the NDA regime. The difference, though, has been that prices of food items have gone up sharply since.

For the BJP, terrorism and minority appeasement are two sides of the same coin. It has projected the delay in execution of the death sentence on Afzal Guru, convicted in the Parliament attack case, as a case of the government being “soft on terrorism” and “appeasing the minorities.”

The other critical factor is the identification of new allies. The senior party leadership admits privately that if general elections take place now, the BJP and the Congress will remain much in the same place, give or take eight to 10 seats. The allies will make the difference.

Tie-up with AIADMK

A tie-up with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is considered important for if fortunes reverse in Tamil Nadu, 39 seats could make all the difference, as they did to the UPA’s fortunes in 2004. So far the Telugu Desam Party, which is part of the third formation, the UNPA, has stayed away from the BJP, but some BJP leaders feel that the TDP could once again support the NDA as it did in 1999.

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