New Delhi: The bad patch the BJP was going
through due to successive election defeats and its internal
problems, including the Karnataka crisis, were a "passing
phase", senior leader Sushma Swaraj on Saturday said and
"prophesised" that it will emerge stronger soon.
"In every political party, there are good and bad phases.
This is a passing phase. We will come out of it soon. You can
take this as a prophesy," Swaraj said in reply to a question
on the internal squabbles in the BJP and its defeats in recent
elections.
She was speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit
here.
When asked specifically about the problems in the BJP
unit in Karnataka, where the Reddy brothers are claiming the
support of 60 party MLAs and demanding that Chief Minister B S
Yeddyurappa should step down, Swaraj said the crisis would be
resolved "in a day or two".
She refuted reports that the party central leadership had
asked her to placate the dissidents.
"I have not been deputed to talk to them. M Venkaiah
Naidu and Arun Jaitley have been given this responsibility and
they are in touch with the group," she said.
In reply to another question on whether mining interests
of Bellary brothers were the reason behind the dissidence,
Swaraj said, "In this crisis, there is no mining interest."
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, October 31, 2009, 17:55