Amit Shah brushes aside threat of new party
Hyderabad/LUCKNOW: With an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, RSS has cautioned the BJP not to be complacent about the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is growing in strength after its success in Delhi.
Sources said the AAP phenomenon figured at a three-day meeting of RSS, BJP’s ideological mentor, near Hyderabad, which ended on Thursday evening.
For the record, both RSS and the BJP, however, denied that any such discussion took place in which the AAP phenomena figured.
BJP President Rajnath Singh held confabulations with top brass of the RSS and key Sangh Parivar outfits on Thursday as part of the exercise to fine-tune the party’s strategy for the 2014 general elections.
RSS leaders are believed to have done some plain talk on the emergence of AAP during the interactions at the biennial meet of the Sangh fountainhead at Shamirpet on the outskirts here, an event kept out of bounds for the media.
Sources say the Sangh was reportedly concerned about the surge in popular support for AAP across the country, particularly in the urban centres, after the recent assembly elections.
“It was never discussed. No discussion in this regard took place. Sangh Sarsanchalak did not say anything like this,” RSS spokesman Ram Madhav told PTI when asked about Mohan Bhagwat reportedly asking BJP not to take AAP lightly ahead of polls.
Sudhanshu Trivedi, the BJP Spokesperson and adviser to BJP Chief said, “Whatever issues are being raised are baseless. Sangh never talks about political issues nor does it give any such advice. It only gives guidance on organisational and ideological issues.
“I have talked to party president Rajnath Singh and he said no political discussion has taken place during the convention and only organisational matters were discussed.”
While BJP won in three states, it could not get a clear majority in Delhi due to the splendid performance of AAP, which is now planning to go nation-wide after initiating a slew of measures aimed at battling corruption and improving civic amenities in the Capital.
AAP’s growing profile has upset the electoral calculations of BJP as it was seeing itself as a natural beneficiary of the anti-incumbency mood against the Congress prevailing in the country.
Bhagwat and key office-bearers of the Sangh, in addition to organising secretaries of parivar outfits attended the meet which reviewed organisational matters and other issues. According to sources, besides RSS, key leaders of ABVP, VHP, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh presented their latest “report cards” detailing the respective activities undertaken by them. “These activities (meeting) are mainly meant for exchange of views”, a RSS functionary said.
Meanwhile, in Lucknow, Amit Shah, the BJP’s general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, said there was no need to fear AAP.
The fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party won 72 percent of the seats in the recently concluded assembly polls in four states was an indication that the party was gaining popularity across the country, Shah told reporters after wrapping up a three-day-visit to the state.
Asked about the findings of a survey by an English daily in which 40 percent voters in metros chose AAP as their party of choice for the Lok Sabha polls, Shah said he saw no challenge as such, but added that the BJP did not take its political opponents lightly.
On the RSS warning the BJP not to underestimate AAP, Shah said he was not aware of any such advisory.
Shah, a close aide of Modi, also said his party would contest all 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh and would not go for alliances with any regional party.
The BJP would field “clean candidates” who have no graft or criminal charges against them, he said.
Asked about the possibility of Modi contesting from a constituency in Uttar Pradesh, he said the decision has to be taken by the party’s parliamentary board and that nothing was final yet. (Agencies)