BJP to boost support in N-E - Advani plans to visit region - The Asian Age

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The BJP has launched a massive campaign for the northeast in order to
establish a presence in the states of Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland,
Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

BJP president L.K. Advani will be visiting some of these states nest month
to boost the drive. The fact that the party plans to have elected
committees in each of these states indicates an increase in its membership
in the region. At present, the BJP has ad hoe committees in these states
barring Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

The strategy adopted by the party to get a foothold in the northeast is to
raise key local issues like lack of development, infiltration, corruption
and prohibition in the states at the national level.

For the purpose, the party has set up a northeast cell, with each state
entrusted with two MPs, one each from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

"The people feel alienated. There is corruption, unemployment and lack of
infrastructure. We are fissuring them that their problems skill be heard
and taken care of. For that our political presence is required," Mr
Kushabhau Thakre, BJP general secretary in charge of the organisation, told
The Asian Age on Saturday.

"Our concern for the northeast has started reflecting in our All India
working committee meetings. A national party like the BJP taking up their
cause has given a ray of hope to the people," said Mr Thakre, who has been
visiting the northeastern states regularly since 1992.

Last month, the party held a conference of its leaders from the northeast
border area states in Delhi, where they discussed possible electoral
alliances with the regional parties in the states. A memorandum demanding
infrastructure was prepared during the conference and submitted to Planning
Commission deputy chairman Madhu Dandavate.

It was also decided that the women's wing of its northeast unit collect one
lakh signatures and submit a memorandum to the President by this month,
demanding 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies,
enforcement of prohibition, waiving of loans and action against infiltration.

Insurgency, Mr Thakre claimed, was one problem which was attracting people
towards the BJP. "I was really surprised by the welcome during one of my
visits to Mizoram. I asked the people there, 'We are supposed to be a Hindu
party, why do you want us?' They told me BJP was the only party which was
strongly opposing infiltration, and if it went on at the same rate, Mizoram
would change from a Christian-dominated state to a Muslim-dominated state
within next five years," he said.

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