Jail bharo agitation
from June 17
Panjim: Brushing aside reservations of patriarch L K Advani and some other senior leaders, the BJP on Sunday anointed Narendra Modi as Chairman of its Election Campaign Committee for the 2914 polls, a move considered just short of making him the prime ministerial candidate.
“I want to give you a significant information. …I have announced (at the National Executive) that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as Chairman of the BJP Election Campaign Committee, keeping in mind the challenge of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and to achieve victory in the polls,” party President Rajnath Singh told the media at the conclusion of its 2-day deliberations.
The announcement was made in a terse statement by Singh who was flanked by leaders of Opposition in Parliament Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, former President M Venkaiah Naidu, General Secretary Ananth Kumar among others. No questions were taken at the media interaction.
“Whatever has happened has happened on the basis of consensus,” Singh said without elaborating.
The decision to appoint 63-year-old Modi came against the backdrop of Advani, who is said to be strongly opposed to the elevation of Modi, keeping away from the meeting.
Several other leaders including Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Uma Bharati and Shatrughan Sinha, who are also said to be reportedly having reservations on Modi’s elevation, also kept away from the Executive meeting.
After two days of deliberations and dilemma, the party appears to have taken the plunge by plumping for Modi in a crucial role, ignoring reservations from leaders like Advani, the tallest leader after Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Singh said all parties view elections as a challenge and BJP also viewed the coming Lok Sabha elections as a challenge and Modi’s elevation was done keeping in mind the need to achieve victory.
“We are absolutely sure that the Congress-led UPA government has lost the confidence of the people and are confident that the BJP will be voted to power in the 2014 elections,” he said.
BJP said it would hold a nationwide ‘jail bharo’ agitation from June 17 against the government for its “failure” on all fronts including checking corruption and price rise.
Announcing the decision at a press conference here, BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said, “BJP will launch a jail bharo andolan from June 17 to June 22.” The agitation was planned on May 27 to June 2 but was postponed in the wake of the Naxal attack in Chattisgarh on May 25.
Earlier, BJP spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain praised Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as “secular” and said several political outfits would be willing to ally themselves with the party when it cruised closer to power.
“People have expectations, we cannot ignore those expectations. Workers have expectations, we cannot ignore those expectations,” Hussain told a press conference in Goa while briefing on the deliberations at BJP’s national executive meet.
To a question about JD(U)’s opposition to Modi, he said, “We do not need a certificate from anybody about who is secular and who is not… In BJP, all are secular and nobody is communal…How can one be secular (in BJP) and another not be secular?”
When asked by reporters about JD(U)’s reservations over Modi, Hussain said, “Modi’s ideology is the same as that of LK Advani which is the same as that of Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, and Venkaiah Naidu.”
The BJP MP wondered how there could be any confusion about one party leader being secular and the other not. “Everybody from Atal Bihari Vajpayee downwards is secular,” Hussain said. (Agencies)