BJP finalises election sops

Sops to farmers, small units may announced before vote-on-account

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went into election mode with Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh holding a meeting at BJP chief M Venkaiah Naidu's house to discuss concessions to be offered before polls.

A package with significant sops for farmers and small industries, to be announced before the vote-on-account, is likely to be part of the BJP economic resolution, to be passed at the Hyderabad national executive meeting, starting on January 11.

In keeping with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's directive that development be the central theme of the election campaign, the "Shining India" theme is likely to be the centrepiece of the economic resolution.

The BJP is keen to capitalise on the fact that no election has been fought on economic issues in the country.

Therefore, the government will leverage its economic achievements - foreign reserves, prepayment of debt, GDP growth and the "feel-good" factor.

Today's meeting assumed significance because the entire exercise coincided with the Prime Minister's arrival from Islamabad this evening. Sources in the government said the aim was to wind up crucial unfinished business of governance before gearing up for the polls.

The government is expected to take certain vital decisions to generate goodwill among people including a package of economic measures.

The decision to go for early polls will be preceded by the vote-on-account, that falls in the domain of the finance minister.

Apart from Advani, Singh and Naidu, senior leaders like Pramod Mahajan and Union Minister Arun Jaitley were also consulted.

There had been unmistakable signals since the morning that confirmed the BJP leadership's decision about early polls.

Though Naidu skirted a direct query on the polls and maintained that the Prime Minister would take a final view, he is learnt to have discussed all the probabilities with NDA convener and Defence Minister George Fernandes.

According to sources in the government, Fernandes endorsed the idea of early polls and also emphasised the need to firm up alliances at the state levels to take maximum advantage out of the confusion in the Congress camp.

That Fernandes was reflecting the NDA's views was confirmed by Railway Minister Nitish Kumar, who also advocated early polls.

BJP sources said senior leaders had launched a simultaneous exercise to firm up alliances in Maharashtra.

Even as BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan expressed his scepticism about the possibility of a tie-up with Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) because of difficulty in seat-sharing, senior NCP leader PA Sangma met Advani and discussed the finer-points of ensuring the NCP's entry into the NDA.

Since it involves another NDA ally, the Shiv Sena, Sangma is expected to call on Vajpayee late tonight to seek his intervention in forging a broader coalition against the Congress in Maharashtra.

As per the mood, all Union ministers have been asked to clear populist projects at the earliest because it will be difficult to announce populist programmes or projects after a decision about early polls has been taken. Naidu is interacting with ministers to find out about the progress on pending projects.

However, conflicting perceptions on the likely poll tie-ups have been emerging from the BJP even as the party leadership is relying on Vajpayee's personal charm to sail through the elections.