As the best wound up the threeday national executive-cum-council at Nagpur, not very far from the RSS headquarters, the broad contours of its strategy for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections started taking shape. The plank, as LK Advani said in his concluding speech at the national council meeting on Sunday, would revolve around the “positive agenda” of good governance, development and security, both internal and economic.
As the conclave drew to a close, it was also evident that, with the principle ruling party, the Congress, setting in motion the process of anointing Rahul Gandhi as the heir-apparent, dynastic politics and the BJP’s trackrecord as a “dependable and stable” ally would also form an integral part of this blueprint.
To pump up its core constituency, the BJP had to revert to its Hindutva agenda, with both Mr Advani and Rajnath Singh reiterating the party’s commitment to ensure the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. As things stand, the saffron outfit can only come to power at the Centre riding on the crutches of its alliance partners. Therefore, the promise of getting a bill introduced in Parliament to remove all roadblocks in the construction of temple if the party was able to form a government on its own strength was just that — a promise, aimed at reassuring the cadre that it hadn’t jettisoned the temple plank.
The party, during the confabulations lasting three days, prepared a detailed chargesheet against the Manmohan Singh government, accusing it on the key fronts of internal security and economy. With the spectre of large-scale layoffs and industrial slowdown looming large, speaker after speaker at the meeting slammed the Congress-led alliance at the Centre for “goofing up” altogether on the economic front. Indeed, the ruling combine was compared to the ”wayward son’’ who, through his irresponsible and profligate ways, had frittered away the hard-earned assets of the family and wrecked its future.
The economic resolution passed by the national council, which was authored by former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, put the onus for the mess at the doorsteps of the Manmohan Singh government.
The party brass feels that the UPA government was vulnerable on another front, terrorism, notwithstanding the changes in the Union home ministry and the legal framework. Its attempts to corner Pakistan for its role in the Mumbai terror attack on the diplomatic stage had also failed to make any headway, with the latter taking it for a ride.
The Nagpur conclave was also noteworthy in that, after a long time, the party appeared to be closing ranks by projecting a unified face. Mr Advani also announced the composing of the team that would hammer out the party’s strategy to win the ensuing electoral battle. Arun Jaitley, Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu lead the pack, with Mr Jaitley donning the role of the chief strategist and Mr Modi, for the first time, being asked to make a foray outside Gujarat by leading the party’s campaign in Maharashtra, Goa, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, besides his home state.
He drew praise for his governance trackrecord, organisational skills and rabblerousing abilities. Ms Swaraj, known for her oratorial skills, was projected as the principle crowd-puller.
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