For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Ram seems to have taken a back seat for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections scheduled for 2012. The party plans to reach out to the masses with the slogan ‘The difference we make’. Curiously, it had quietly dropped its catch line “Party with a difference” after it came under attack for the indictment of former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on charges of corruption.
Headed by swayamsevak Nitin Gadkari, the party has firmed up a comprehensive plan to contest the polls on development issues. It has taken a calculated decision to bring in a rainbow leadership comprising senior leaders from the Thakur, Brahmin and OBC communities, instead of making the whole exercise centric to a particular individual. More importantly, it has decided against portraying any individual as the chief ministerial candidate. Former UP chief minister Rajnath Singh, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharati and RSS swayamsevak Sanjay Joshi have been assigned specific responsibilities to rejuvenate the organisation. Joshi, sidelined after the sleaze CD scandal in 2005, has been given entrusted with the special task of ensuring coordination between the BJP and the RSS. He is expected to curb groupism within the party.
Party president Gadkari told Business Standard, “The party will contest UP elections purely on development agenda. We are putting in all efforts to assume power in UP and resolve to increase the pace of development. We will ensure nobody from Uttar Pradesh has to migrate to other states. They will become part of the development story.”
Said a senior leader associated with preparations for the coming elections, “A special group chaired by Kesarinath Tripathi, former speaker of the UP assembly, is working hard to prepare a comprehensive vision document for the state. The party will hold public hearings on developmental issues in different cities and towns and accommodate suggestions from the public. People are craving for development and we will convince them that it can happen here, too.” He said the party would sell the success stories of BJP-led governments in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Karnataka.
“Effective public distribution system implemented by the BJP government in Chhatisgarh has been praised by the Supreme Court. Gujarat has clocked 11 per cent growth and attracted the attention of the world leaders. Improvement in municipal administration in Bangalore is being followed by other states. Similarly, a slew of health schemes and land fertility improvement programmes in Madhya Pradesh have set a new benchmark. The party plans to approach intellectuals, thinking circles and opinion makers to tell them what the BJP-led governments have done and how the party can change Uttar Pradesh,” the BJP leader informed.