CD: Rajnath will court arrest

Shortly after the BJP had routed the Congress in the MCD polls, top leaders of the party gathered at L K Advani8217;s house

Shortly after the BJP had routed the Congress in the MCD polls, top leaders of the party gathered at L K Advani8217;s house today and in another show of aggression decided that party president Rajnath Singh would surrender to the police in Lucknow on Monday in connection with the release of the controversial CD. Apart from Advani, the party chief would be accompanied by a galaxy of senior BJP leaders like Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The message that came out from the two-hour meeting was that there was nothing for the BJP to be defensive about and Rajnath Singh would not apply for bail in the CD case. Advani himself took the call at the meeting by charting out the way ahead. Recent victories in Uttarakhand and Punjab and now in local polls in the Capital have given the party added political muscle. Advani8217;s intervention and taking charge of the Uttar Pradesh situation is also believed to be a deliberate effort to stave off the RSS from dictating the course of the party8217;s election campaign, which has upset a section of the leadership now involved in poll strategy.

While victory for the BJP was expected, its sweeping nature indicated the party8217;s continuing honeymoon with the urban centres, clearly illustrated in Punjab where the party won 19 of the 23 seats it contested. Moving on the assumption that victories in urban centres actually set the base for victories in semi-urban and rural zones, the party has been doing the homework to build urban voter base.

The victory in the MCD polls is important for the party on two counts: first, the BJP is essentially a Delhi political party and the MCD victory endorsed that identity and second, according to senior leaders, the party is expecting the resulting domino effect from the recent victories in the Assembly polls and now in Delhi to positively impact the party8217;s prospects in the UP polls, especially in areas close to Delhi like Noida, Ghaziabad and Hapur.

Locally, it posted another win for party general secretary Arun Jaitley8217;s election strategy and his partnership with BJP Delhi leader Harsh Vardhan while pointing to the eclipse of Delhi BJP veterans like Sahib Singh Verma.

If the party8217;s reaction on the CD issue signalled a course correction when Advani went on the offensive against the Congress and the Left at the BJP8217;s Foundation Day on Friday, today8217;s meeting pointed to a course correction for the UP polls: instead of top leaders pulling in different directions it would be a synergised campaign. One pointer to that was the presence of Yashwant Sinha, Advani8217;s bete noire, during the meeting.