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BJP president L.K. Advani on Saturday called upon party workers to
prepare for mid-term elections which, he said, "may take place any
time."
"Let us get ready for governance. Our aim is to win a clear
majority in the next trial of strength... It is with this objective
in mind that we have to deal with the unstable and volatile
situation that has been precipitated by the Congress' decision last
Sunday," Mr Advani said.
He was inaugurating the two-day BJP national executive meeting,
which is now being held in New Delhi instead of Thiruvananthapuram
in view of the current political crisis. The BJP leaders discussed
all options available to the party, and were unanimous that snap
polls were inevitable. sooner or later.
The BJP president said nothing except the party's own
organisational weaknesses can prevent it from coming to power at
the Centre. He said in the southern and eastern states, the party
should strongly ally itself with regional pride, aspirations and
concerns in the spheres of language, culture and socio-economic
development "without succumbing to the pressures of regional
chauvinism."
He said irrespective of what actually happens on April 11, whether
the Deve Gowda government survived or fell, and irrespective of
when the mid-term polls were announced, the credibility and
prestige of the United Front and the Congress would be in a
shambles.
"Barren anti-BJPism and a desperate craving for power were the only
ingredients of the glue that held the United Front together, as
also the United Front and the Congress together. The manner in
which Congress president Sitaram Kesri withdrew support to the
Front government, the mariner in which Mr Gowda tried to pre-empt
it, all these are so murky as to make any self-respecting Indian
hang his head in shame," Mr Advani said.
Taking a dig at the United Front government, the BJP president said
the "most graphic description" of the state of affairs in the
ruling coalition was given by one of its own veteran leaders, Mr
Biju Patnaik, who called it a "cluster of lobsters clawing at one
another."
"Clearly, the government was subsisting front day to day. The worst
predicament was that of the Congress and the CPI(M). They could
neither swallow not- spit out what they had bitten. They knew they
were losing out on their already shrinking bases. But at the same
time they dreaded withdrawing support to the Front government for
that would inevitably bring BJP back to power. As a result, for a
long time all that the Congress and Communists were left with was
hypocritical posturing," Mr Advani said.
He called upon party workers to "tear apart" the masks of phoney
secularism of "our adversaries," the Congress, the Communists,
Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal, and "expose it for what it
truly is: a pretext for grabbing power."
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