BJP to shift focus on UP, development

MANDATE 2004/ Day after: Parties take stock

A day after the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, top BJP leaders led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee yesterday reviewed the feedback on the polling trends and decided to focus its next phase of campaigning on development and in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.

"Our assessment of the trends are encouraging. We are comfortably placed. We reiterate our appeal to the people to give us a decisive mandate, a bigger mandate to help us accomplish many big tasks outlined in the NDA agenda," BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters after the meeting.

Naidu also appealed to the minorities, particularly Muslims, to give the party an "opportunity once".

Besides Naidu, the high-level meeting was attended among others by Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley and BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan.

The leaders exchanged information and their assessment of the situation including the campaign strategy for the next phase. Naidu later said the meeting agreed to focus entirely on development in the next phase of its campaign.

Asked whether there was a feeling that the issue of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin has backfired, he shot back, "When was it fired that it would backfire. You would see it in the course of our campaign."

Party sources said it was also decided to focus on the politically-crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, with the party deciding to depute top leaders to campaign for it in the wake of the Lucknow stampede episode in which 22 women were killed making a dent in the party's image.

Earlier, Naidu convened a meeting of party leaders including Jaitley, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Sanjay Joshi, Pramod Mahajan and Bal Apte where poll-related issues including the Election Commission notice to the party on the Lucknow stampede came up for discussion.

Commenting on the findings of the opinion polls and exit polls, Naidu said, "The margin of NDA's lead might be different from one poll to another. But not a single exit poll has suggested that the people are in a mood to bring the Congress back to power. Whatever be the outcome of exit polls, the exit of the Congress is certain."

"All reports clearly show that the Congress party is fighting for survival. It should gracefully declare acceptance of defeat," the party chief said.

He also claimed that unlike in the past, there was no tactical anti-BJP voting among the minorities. "You have tried all other parties and felt let down. Please give us a chance," Naidu said appealing to the minorities.

The BJP chief dismissed as "absurd and meaningless" the Congress demand for the countermanding of polls in the Lucknow seat in the wake of the stampede.