The Hindu : New Delhi News : INLD rejoins NDA after four years

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Monday, Oct 13, 2008
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INLD rejoins NDA after four years

Sujay Mehdudia

It will contest Lok Sabha elections in Haryana together with BJP

- PHOTO: PTI

TOGETHER AGAIN: Indian National Lok Dal chief Om Prakash Chautala with BJP president Rajnath Singh and senior leader L.K. Advani after the party joined BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in New Delhi on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: The Om Prakash Chautala-led Indian National Lok Dal on Sunday announced its return to the BJP-led NDA-fold stating that it would contest the coming Lok Sabha elections in Haryana with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The INLD had snapped ties with the NDA in February 2004.

Announcing the tie-up at a joint press conference here, BJP president Rajnath Singh, senior BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani, and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala said the main aim of the two parties coming together was to work for the ouster of the Congress-led UPA from power. Refusing to elaborate on the number of seats both will contest in Haryana, Mr. Chautala said the alliance was not based on preconditions. “I extended support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998 without any condition and same is the case this time round,” he remarked.

Mr. Rajnath Singh said INLD was an uncompromising, anti-Congress force. The alliance would ensure that the Congress is voted out of power. Mr. Singh said the rejoining of the INLD with the NDA was only the beginning. “I had said months ago that the number of NDA allies will increase,” he stated.

Charging the Congress-led UPA with leading the country to chaos and disaster, Mr. Advani said the return of the INLD was an indication of the strengthening of anti-Congress forces and expressed confidence that the NDA would storm back to power at the Centre after the Lok Sabha polls.

“The people of the country have been subjected to the worst kind of suffering. The economy has taken a beating and the common man has been burdened financially by the rising prices of essential commodities as well as the interest rates. There is no respite for any section and there is a growing feeling in the NDA that a ‘save country campaign’ should be launched,” he added.

A joint statement by the two parties said the INLD and the BJP would organise a variety of campaigns to highlight the “anti-farmer, anti-people and corrupt record of the Congress.”

Asked about the BJP’s stand on two-party system, Mr. Advani said multiplicity of parties was a must for Indian democracy. It was the BJP which created bipolar polity in the country by uniting parties against the monopoly of the Congress, he added. “We fought terror, worked for the benefit of the common man and even antagonised the U.S. by conducting Pokhran II. Under the UPA regime, the biggest problem is inflation and rising prices which has made the survival of the common man very difficult,” he said.

During the last Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had won nine out of 10 seats in Haryana, while the BJP won one. The BJP has negligible presence in Haryana with the Congress and the INLD occupying most of the seats in the State Assembly.

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