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Encouraged by the "upward trend in the party's graph," top leaders
of the Bharatiya Janata Party" (BJP) are now busy formulating an
action plan to bring about "a change at the Centre."
Although final touches to the action plan would be given at the
party's national executive meeting in Thiruvananthapuram next week,
the central leadership has decided on a two-pronged strategy to
experiment with new alliances and increase party's influence in
southern and north-eastern states.
The growing tension between the Congress and the United Front, on
the one hand and left parties and the United Front on the other,
have prompted the BJP leaders to prepare such an action plan.
These leaders are of the firm view that the downfall of the
"non-functional and Indecisive Deve Gowda government is inevitable"
and 1997 will be the year of mid-term polls.
The leadership has noted with great satisfaction that despite the
negative approach of political parties towards the BJP, the party
has been marching ahead. The sweeping victory of the BJP across
the country in by-elections, particularly in Punjab assembly
elections, are examples of this.
A senior BJP leader admitted that if the party is able to gain more
influence in southern states, especially in Kerala, Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh and strengthen its position in the north-eastern
states, its chances of coming to power at the Centre are bright.
He said though it was a difficult task, a beginning in this
direction was made recently when party stalwart Atal Behari
Vajpayee addressed a public meeting in the Marxist heartland
Calcutta. Declaring that "the BJP wave is on," Mr Vajpayee
described his party as the only stable national alternative and
appealed to the people to strengthen it.
According to the action plan, the party's activities in these
states would be stepped up by organising a chain of meetings of
senior leaders. The aim of these meetings would be to create a
feeling among the people that BJP can give a "better, stable and
cohesive" government at the Centre. The party would also highlight
problems of respective states and, where necessary, look out for
new alliances.
Another senior leader of the party said that soon after the
Thiruvananthapuram session, the party would launch a massive
people's contact campaign which will form the background of the
action plan. The campaign will highlight that the United Front
government has failed to come up to the expectations of the people
and it would be in the interests of the country and democracy that
early midterm polls are held. People would be told by senior
leaders during the campaign that there is a clear polarisation and
it is now the Congress, the left parties and the United Front
versus the BJP. The campaign would highlight that the BJP along
with some allies has a good chance of getting absolute majority in
the polls.
The action plan favours pre-poll alliances like in Punjab, Haryana,
Bihar and Maharashtra and suggests that new alliances should be
worked out, particularly in southern and north-eastern states. The
concept behind this is that if the BJP has to govern at the Centre,
it should be represented by all states, not marginally but in a
major way, so that every state feels the sense of participation in
the BJP-led government.
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