Bhartiya Janta party's national executive meets in the state capital over three days from December 22. This is after a gap of 15 years that Lucknow is playing host to the party national executive and the selection is quite well thought of.
Sankalp Su-shasan aur rashtravaad ka, Lakshya — Vijay
(Promise of clean government and nationalism, Target — victory)” is likely to make main campaign theme for the polls.
Atal still Atal as PM for NDA
Former Union Minister Murali Manohar Joshi today described former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as a man with magical power. WHO should be the prime minister candidate of the BJP in the 2009 polls is not on the agenda of the BJP’s conclave here.
No dearth of leaders for PM's job: Joshi
The good showing in the recent mayoral polls is being attributed to good organizational back-up. In the assembly polls held in 2002, the BJP won only 88 of the 403 seats. Its poll-percentage in the number of seats it contested was 25.31, as against 23.19% of the BSP and 26.27% of the Samajwadi Party. Since then, the saffron outfit has been hit by a steady stream of desertions, bringing down its tally to about 70.
Party leaders are now hoping to reverse the performance graph in the state by injecting a generous dose of fresh blood in the list of its candidates. And with the Samajwadi Party, BSP and the Congress engaged in competitive politics to win the support of the Muslims, BJP leaders are also chalking out plans to secure a Hindu consolidation.
Prior to the event, the BJP released a CD showing the SP-led government encouraging cow slaughter, with graphic scenes depicting the act, and the headless body of one of its councilors alleged to have been killed by the SP goons. The voiceover exhorted Hindus not to sit idly when members of a certain community “kidnap and rape our women.” Clearly this is stirring stuff, to be disseminated in every district, with hope it will raise Hindu ire.
Hindutva the soul of the nation
Rajnath Singh and some other leaders in the party believe that Hindutva is key to win back the Hindi heartland, but some believe much more is required to widen the BJP's appeal, especially among dalits and youth.
The BJP chief, who is believed to have upset many of his colleagues for allowing the RSS a greater role in the organization, has his prestige at stake as he virtually faces a challenge from within the party to prove his mettle in his home state where elections are due early next year. The party's former chief of the state unit and now Rajya Sabha MP, Kalraj Mishra, "It is wrong to perceive that we had shifted from our Hindutava plank. This had been our agenda and will continue to be our main poll plank," He added "It (RSS) is the biggest socio-cultural organization in the world and whenever it feels that the BJP is somewhere going wrong, it gives its opinion and there is nothing wrong in it,"
Equality for all and appeasement to none
'The policy of minority appeasement was initiated by the Congress in 1916 and we will bring it to an end by 2016,' Rajnath Singh said in his presidential address immediately after his re-election to the office was formally ratified by the party's national council here.
Vote bank politics and minority appeasement had come to such a pass that terrorists were safe but the common man was sitting on a landmine. Both the Samajwadi Party and the Congress are wooing the Muslims aggressively. “The two parties are involved in a bitter struggle to project themselves as the real savior of the Muslims.
If the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre appointed the Sachchar committee to assess the status of Muslims, the Mulayam Singh government went a step ahead and got a resolution demanding reservation for Muslims passed in the state assembly. The Prime Minister then followed it up by making his now-infamous Muslims-first statement at the NDC. This is nothing but crass appeasement,” Mr Naqvi asserted. Congress, the BSP and Samajwadi Party are competing to decide who is a bigger supporter of fanatical forces. In the light of this we have our own clear-cut support base.”
Fake Secular Media & Congress
There is a heading: BJP returns to hate & Hindutva . The Congress on Saturday dismissed Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh's announcement that his party would bury Muslim appeasement in the next 10 years as a reflection of mental bankruptcy of its leadership. Is ‘Appeasement to none and equality for all’ a sign of hating to minority?
Committee for coming assembly election
Looking ahead, a committee has been formed by Rajnath Singh to draw the programs and draft plans for elections in states, and look ahead at the next general elections. Among those on the newly formed committee are Venkaiah Naidu, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Vinay Katiyar, Prakash Javadekar, T C Gehlot and Karuna Shukla. The task of that committee will also be to find ways to galvanize the party where it is weak.
Mulalyam honors BJP?
UP Government has accorded the status of state guest to 129 delegates attending the meets. The guests include Vajpayee, Advani, four CMs of the BJP-ruled states, and all ministers of these states besides others.
Vajpayee is staying in the Raj Bhavan while rooms have been made available on government expense to Advani, Jaswant Singh, Sushma, Narendra Modi, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Dr Raman Singh (all state guests) at the Taj Residency. The remaining guests have been provided accommodation in government guest houses.
By Premendra Agrawal