Inauspicious month kept saffron BJP away from campaign show

Naqvi said party’s star campaigners will also kick off their tour of the state only after January 15.

Makar Sankranti,which falls on January 15,marks the start of the harvest season and is considered the beginning of an auspicious phase in Hindu tradition. The previous one month in the Hindu calendar is considered inauspicious.

It was for this reason that there was little organised campaigning by the BJP for almost a month. Except a public meeting in Mauranipur in Jhansi on January 5,which was addressed by BJP national president Nitin Gadkari,no major programme was organised in the state.

Many party leaders even attribute the embarrassment that the party suffered over the induction of Mayawati’s former family welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha to its wrong timing in kharmas.

It was because of the controversy over Kushwaha that former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti withdrew from the election campaign,cancelled her programme after January 9,and decided to get active only after taking a bath at Gangasagar in West Bengal on Makar Sankranti,said a source.

The BJP national president Nitin Gadkari in also arriving to Lucknow on January 16 to release party’s Vision Document for UP.

Most state leaders,including national vice-president Kalraj Mishra and state president Surya Pratap Shahi,are keeping low profile and working mostly in their constituencies,but avoiding public meetings. Former chief minister Rajnath Singh is also going to start his poll campaign in Uttarakhand from tomorrow.