Uttaranchal BJP hopes to turn Gujarat tide in favour

The state unit has been going through a bad patch, following a string of electoral defeats, beginning with the loss of power in the first Assembly elections in February this year.

The party also suffered humiliating defeats at the hands of the Congress in the Ramnagar Assembly segment and Nainital Lok Sabha by-elections. State party chief Manohar Kant Dhayani, a hardliner himself, said the ‘‘awakening’’ in Gujarat point at the fact that BJP would lead the country in the next century.

Admitting that the party failed to perform in the Nainital bypolls, Dhayani told his workers to turn the ‘‘Gujarat hurricane’’ into a ‘‘storm’’ in their favour during the coming polls. He also pointed to the alleged corruption prevalent in the government and told workers to fight for the rights of people who feel ‘‘marginalised’’.

The local bodies and panchayat elections are due for the past two years and the government has given an undertaking to the HC that the polls would be held before March 2003.