The Hindu : National : BJP will emerge the clear winner in 2009 general elections, says Advani

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BJP will emerge the clear winner in 2009 general elections, says Advani

Neena Vyas

“Alliance will have parties that may not be ideologically aligned with the BJP on all issues”

L.K. Advani

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani on Monday exuded confidence that in the 2009 general elections his party would better its 1999 record of 182 Lok Sabha seats won to help it emerge a “clear winner” and a “strong and unshakeable anchor” of an expanded National Democratic Alliance.

Mr. Advani said he expected more parties to join the NDA before the electoral battle. He made it clear that this alliance would have parties that “may not be ideologically aligned with the BJP on all issues,” and would have to be cemented on the basis of a common agenda that was critical to the NDA’s success in 1998 and 1999.

This was seen by the BJP leaders as a clear signal that the party leadership would once again readily agree to put its core contentious issues on the backburner if political exigencies so demand. On Sunday, BJP president Rajnath Singh made it a point to mention these very contentious issues as critical, saying the BJP was “committed” to “cultural nationalism [that is, Hindutva],” implementing a uniform civil code and abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution.

While asking his party men to reach out to every section of society through a mass contact programme, Mr. Advani mentioned the need to reach out to Muslims and Christians “who have so far remained aloof from the BJP.” He was addressing the concluding session of the BJP’s two-day national executive committee meeting.

Mr. Advani endorsed Mr. Singh’s claim that the BJP was now a frontrunner in the coming Lok Sabha poll. The party must get sufficient seats to form a “robust and unshakeable core” of a new alliance instead of finding itself at the head of a shaky coalition. He was critical of the polity for throwing up unstable coalitions and saw in the Karnataka mandate a desire to go back to strong, stable governments.

Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told journalists that the reports from roughly 150 identified Lok Sabha seats, where party observers had been sent, had been submitted to the party president. Mr. Singh had advised all party State units to set up election committees, election management committees, and media management committees in preparation for the Lok Sabha poll. The work of identifying candidates would also begin straightaway, he signalled, even as the organisational challenge of setting up booth-level committees at every polling booth was met.

Bihar crisis

The party’s parliamentary board will meet on Tuesday to resolve the internal crisis in Bihar where a large number of legislators are demanding the removal of Sushil Modi as Deputy Chief Minister.

Just before the Karnataka poll campaign the Bihar legislators were told that their demand would be taken up after the Karnataka results.

Neither the Bihar issue nor the crisis in Rajasthan was discussed or allowed to be discussed at the party’s two-day conclave that ended here on Monday.

Several party leaders said privately the leadership had not been able to identify an “alternative” to Mr. Modi. They said that although dissidents had said “anyone would be acceptable” there was no consensus or unanimity on the names of either Nand Kishore Yadav or Ashwini Chaubey, two prominent BJP leaders in the state.

One proposal was to entrust Mr. Modi with the task of preparing for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and encourage someone else to take on a leadership role in Bihar affairs. Since the anti-Modi campaign started after the recent Cabinet reshuffle by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, another suggestion was that the portfolios of the BJP Ministers be restored. For this favour Mr. Kumar would have to be approached and the BJP’s relationship with the Janata Dal (United) is not exactly hunky-dory.

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