Opp on the prowl: Advani tells MPs to watch words

Referring to internal criticisms, the Deputy Prime Minister said while the performance of the Government should make every MP feel proud, the Opposition effort was to play up the differences within the party, the Sangh Parivar and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to discredit it. The party had to combat this design, he said.

Advani sought to logically explain the party’s defeat in Himachal by describing the state politics as a pendulum-syndrome with the Congress and the BJP taking turns for getting into power in successive Assembly elections. He said an analysis of the state election results showed that the combined votes of official BJP candidates and rebels in 15 to 20 constituencies far exceeded the votes polled by winning Congress candidates. ‘‘It shows that the BJP could perform better,’’ he added.