On Lucknow stage,BJP invokes Ram

The BJP on Friday raked up the Ram Temple issue and invoked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as part of its strategy to make a comeback in UP with party chief Nitin Gadkari ruling out having truck with any party for next year's Assembly polls.

The BJP on Friday raked up the Ram Temple issue and invoked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as part of its strategy to make a comeback in UP with party chief Nitin Gadkari ruling out having truck with any party for next year’s Assembly polls.

Briefing the reporters about the inaugural speech in the national executive meeting by Gadkari,BJP’s chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said,”Passage to Delhi goes via Lucknow,if NDA has to form government at the Centre in 2014,then we have to win UP Assembly elections in 2012.”

“In 1991 and 1996 Lok Sabha elections,UP returned as many as 58-60 MPs of the BJP,we have to restore that glory of the party in UP for capturing power in Delhi in 2014,” the BJP chief said,adding “people of UP are fed up with both the SP and BSP,they are waiting for change and only the BJP can provide credible alternative”.

Prasad said Gadkari announced that there would be no alliance whatsoever with SP,BSP or Ajit Singh’s party (RLD) before or after the polls. “Both SP and BSP are the appendages of the Congress. Both the parties are friends of the Congress in Delhi,while they maintain a facade of hostility in Lucknow.”

“Both SP and BSP came to the rescue of the Congress in frustrating the report of the Public Accounts Committee of the Lok Sabha headed by Murli Manohar Joshi on 2G spectrum scam,” said the BJP spokesperson adding “the rallies held by the BJP in UP recently have evoked good response and we will win the confidence of the people in UP on our own strength”. Underlining the political strength of the BJP at the national level,he said the “BJP rules 36 per cent of the area of India while the Congress is in power only in 31 per cent”.

Referring to AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi,Prasad said “we have seen the charishma of Rahul Gandhi in Bihar Assembly elections where the tally of Congress in the Assembly reduced to 4 from 9 seats. Rahul Gandhi had campaigned in 26 constituencies and Congress lost deposits in almost all seats”.

Asked about the intense factionalism in UP unit of the BJP,Prasad parried the question saying the party runs on “democratic lines and not as a family-centric party”.

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Gadkari also tried to strike an emotional cord with the people and the party cadre by referring to contributions made by Vajpayee. “I had met Vajpayeeji yesterday. He has represented Lucknow seat five times,” Gadkari said.

Vajpayee,who represented Lucknow in Lok Sabha for five terms in 1991,96,98,99 and 2004 before taking break from the active politics owing to bad health,was remembered along with other party ideologues like Deendayal Upadhyay,Bhaurao Deoras and Nanaji Deshmukh,who had long association with Lucknow.

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