BJP to fight coming polls on development plank

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May 25, 2003 20:47 IST

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders met in Jaipur on Sunday and announced that the party would fight the assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Chhattisgarh and the general election on the development plank.

They also announced that state party chief Vasundhara Raje would be the chief minister if the BJP came to power in Rajasthan.

Addressing party workers in Jaipur, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani said, "Devoid of any real development issue, the Congress is harping on pseudo-secularism to divert people's attention. The party, which had ruled the country for 47 long years, is responsible for India's ills.

"The Vajpayee government has fully established its credibility and we shall romp home again in 2004 parliamentary elections."

Advani dared the Congress for a debate on Hindutva and said secularism was deeply rooted into India's democratic fabric.

"India is a Hindu nation but not a Hindu state because there is no concept of a religious state in Hinduism," he said.

BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu cautioned party workers against the Congress' efforts to divert the people's attention from its 'failure' on the development front.

"Corner the Congress on issues of water and electricity supply and unemployment.

"The time is coming when Raje, who has been touring all over the state with her Parivartan Yatra to galvanise people against the misrule of the Congress, will be heading the government in Rajasthan," Naidu said.

BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan said: "It will be a reversal of fortune in the assembly polls when the BJP romps home with two-thirds majority under the leadership of Raje."

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