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No Hindutva in BJP agenda for coming polls: Naidu
Hyderabad, May 30: Sounding a war bugle for the coming round of assembly polls, the BJP today made it clear that Hindutva would not be a poll issue and scotched speculations over advancing Lok Sabha elections.
Hyderabad, May 30: Sounding a war bugle for the coming round of assembly polls, the BJP today made it clear that Hindutva would not be a poll issue and scotched speculations over advancing Lok Sabha elections.
"Hindutva is a way of life and soul of Bharat. But it is not going to be a poll issue," party president M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters after a crucial two-day brainstorming session of BJP to chalk out a strategy for assembly polls and the next parliamentary elections.
The meeting of state unit party presidents and secretaries, inaugurated by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani yesterday, came up with a five-point action plan detailing the party's strategy for the five states going to polls later this year.
The action plan includes preparation of 'chargesheets' highlighting the omissions and commissions of the Congress-ruled governments, organising agitational programmes on public issues to 'confront Congress' and taking up yatras to create awareness about the need for change.
Stating that 'development and good governance' would be the main poll planks of BJP, Naidu exuded confidence that his party would wrest Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi from the Congress and also emerge victorious in Mizoram.
Asked whether BJP had buried its 'Gujarat experiment' and abandoned Hindutva as a poll plank, Naidu said: "We do not believe in burial. We believe in regenerating".
Ruling out the possibility of advancing parliament polls in the event of a favourable verdict in assembly polls, he said: "It is mere speculation. We do not have such proposal in mind".
While asserting that the party was working towards achieving a target of two-third majority for NDA in parliament elections, due next year, the BJP chief was, however, evasive when asked whether the party was scouting for any new partners.
"We will talk about alliances only at the time of elections. As far as new partners are concerned, it depends on their desire and suitability," Naidu said.
It was first time that BJP had convened a meeting of presidents and secretaries of its state units. It deliberated on electoral preparedness of state units and the action plan for 'Mission 2004'.
"Do not counter but corner the Congress from all corners. Think progressively, assert ideologically and campaign aggressively," was the message to the cadre sent out by the conclave.
Bureau Report