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Monday, May 26, 2008
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BJP now a front runner in Lok Sabha polls: Rajnath

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh declared on Sunday that the party’s victory in the Karnataka Assembly election has propelled the party into the position of “front runner” in the next Lok Sabha elections.

“The door has opened for the BJP in the South. The BJP’s geographical spread now covers East and West, North and South,” he told journalists here.

The party will now have its own governments in seven States while it is a partner in the ruling coalition in another five States, making us the biggest party in the country,” Mr. Singh said.

Reacting to the Karnataka result, Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Prithviraj Chavan said: “The secular vote got divided.”

- PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

CAUSE FOR JOY: Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh (centre) with Karnataka election in-charge Arun Jaitley (right) and Sushma Swaraj at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday, after the Karnataka election results.

“By harping on the issue of terrorism the BJP had indirectly promoted communalism. The terrorist attack in Jaipur had come at a time when the beneficiary was the BJP.”

Janata Dal (Secular) spokesperson Danish Ali blamed the Congress for “wasting all its energies in destroying the JD (S) when it should have focussed on attacking the BJP.”

BJP leaders said that the early decision to project Yeddyurappa as Chief Minister, taken soon after his few-day-old government fell, had helped other contenders to reconcile to the decision.

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