BJP courts Muslim voters

Advani will lead the BJP into general elections. The BJP’s presidential polls are to be postponed in view of mid-term elections. The party’s central office-bearers will meet on Saturday to endorse the decision. The BJP’s main election planks will be stability, good governance and corruption.

With the dissolution of the Lok Sabha expected later in the day, Advani deviated from his prepared speech this morning at the national Muslim conference organised here by the BJP Yuva Morcha and said if Muslim leaders abandoned their claim on the Ayodhya site, he would mediate on their behalf with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to find an amicable solution to Kashi and Mathura.

In the afternoon, Atal Behari Vajpayee told 4,000 Muslim delegates at the same conference that Congress leaders were willing to join the BJP “in the national interest” to provide a stable Government.

Pushing the BJP’s new line that the untouchability factor no longer dogs the party (as shown by the coup in Uttar Pradesh), Vajpayee said alliances with more political parties could be forged. The effort was aimed at telling Muslims that secular parties do not shun the BJP any more.

But the VHP appears to be at cross purposes with the BJP. While the latter is trying to soft-pedal the Ram temple issue, the VHP is determined not to let the matter lie. UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh is reported to have requested the VHP to “tone down” the programmes on the grounds that the situation is sensitive.