For BJP, the road to Delhi will pass through Lucknow

OPINION: Atal Behari Vajpayee

The situation in UP is a challenge and we must face up to it. We have to raise the party again in UP.

I am very happy that the National Council of the Jan Sangh (read Bharatiya Janata Party ) is being held in Lucknow, not just because it is my constituency but also to show all of you, the situation here. It has been a challenge and I am glad that the challenge was accepted by the party.

The circumstances through which we are going through in Uttar Pradesh is not known to many in the country. The Mulayam Singh government's hospitality to us deserves our thanks and yet I cannot forget the murder of our party colleagues in Uttar Pradesh who were felled only because of ideological differences. I cannot forget the heinous beheading of one our party's leaders in Uttar Pradesh, the beheading, a symbol of a society where law and civilisation has broken down, still haunts me.

The situation in UP is a challenge and we must face up to it. We have to raise the party again in UP and make it influential. We all know that the road to Delhi goes through Lucknow. The key to changing the political map of the country lies in Uttar Pradesh. Even the name, Luck Now! Luck Now! is significant when you break it down. This luck will not come to us on its own, we have to grab it.

There is only one mantra to be the recipient of this luck and to be able to hold on to it. For this, we should work together, overcoming differences and answer all challenges. There should be no space for factionalism in the party. I want the old spirit of comraderie and solidarity back in the party.

Assembly Elections are due in five states and this will change the political map of the country. But none more so than the UP elections in the coming year, which will open the door to new possibilities. This council in Lucknow is symbolic not just as a herald for the upcoming battle for power but for our values of nationalism and our spirit and committment to certain ideals.

The people of Uttar Pradesh should sense the change in the air and prepare themselves for it. I have many associations with Lucknow, apart from this being my constituency.

I studied here, my mother died in Lucknow and my father's ashes were scattered in the Gomti river. The Gomti of yore is no more, now when I see the Gomti my blood boils.

We have to change the way Uttar Pradesh is, the way the Gomti has turned out. For that we have to bring back those days in the party when people spent their entire youth in the party, they did not think twice before sacrificing anything for the party.

(The above is an extract of Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's address to the BJP's National Council meeting on Sunday, 24 December in Lucknow)