BJP gets wake-up call from star CM: Afzal Guru no poll issue

L K Advani when the party floated the name of Narendra Modi as the next Prime Ministerial candidate. More so,when Advani and Modis refrain during the campaign was to slam the UPA on the Afzal issue saying if Afzal Guru had been Anand Singh or Anand Mohan,he would have been hanged.

The BJP won 16 of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh,down from 25 in 2004 but still creditable given the partys performance elsewhere in the country.

Defeated candidates in Uttar Pradesh were critical of the partys decision to parachute Narendra Modi for their campaign. Jaswant Saini,BJP candidate who lost in Saharanpur said: Although Muslims are not on our target voters,there are other communities who get hurt by Modis loud talk. We were quite apprehensive when we were told that he was coming for campaigning but we could not do anything.

Speaking to The Indian Express after attending a meet of BJP chief ministers at the residence of party leader L K Advani,Chouhan called for vigorously espousing the bijli-sadak-paani agenda and reminded the party that the country always yearns for a united response in face of terror attacks.

The people always desire that country should fight terror in one voice. The 26/11 Mumbai attacks also saw Muslim community leaders coming out in the open to denounce terror which must be heartily lauded, he said.

He sought to discount the theory that Afzal Guru sentenced to death in the Parliament attack case was a potent election issue. Terror calls for zero-tolerance,a pro-active approach. We also need to get to the root of terror. But the execution of Afzal Guru is hardly an election issue and the people and country desire a united response and one voice on terror, he said.

Often contrasted with Modi on the governance-ideology matrix,Chouhan also sought to redefine Hindutva for his party. For me,vikas development alone is Hindutva.

Asked if he ever took up Hindutva-related issues in his election speeches,he said: Elections are now all about an agenda for governance. I spoke nothing except infrastructure,the need to make farming a profitable venture,the need for investments in the state,and womens empowerment. Initiatives like the Laxmi Ladli scheme for the girl child launched in his state had been included in the partys central manifesto.

In Madhya Pradesh,the BJP lost most of the seats in the Malwa region and Chouhan,one of the youngest second-rung leaders in the party,is learnt to have credited the Congresss youth strategy for its success in the region Congresss Meenakshi Natrajan managed to defeat 81-year-old and eight-term veteran Laxmi Narayan Pandey in Mandsaur.

Asked what message had the elections conveyed,Chouhan said: The space for Third Front has shrunk considerably. The NDA becomes the natural claimant to power when the UPA is ruling at the Centre and vice-versa.

Faizabad candidate Lallu Singh,who had been against Modis campaigning in his constituency,is fuming. We have a mixed population in Faizabad and Muslims here are important. Although Narendra Modi is a leader of national repute,yet he does make a negative impact on the non-Hindu voters, said Singh,who came third after Congress Nirmal Khatri,who won,and SPs Mitrasen Yadav. with Tarannum Manjul in Lucknow