BJP 'carpet bombing' campaign from Apr 6

The Bharatiya Janata Party's war to gain control of the voter's mind will begin in real earnest from April 6 with a "carpet bombing" campaign by its leaders across the country starting with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's rally in Lucknow on April 5, followed by Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani's public meeting in Ayodhya the next day.

That Hindutva was alive and kicking for the party was clear from the fact that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will kick off the party's campaign in Maharashtra, where the party is contesting the polls in alliance with the Shiv Sena.

Advani had yesterday said at Solapur in Maharashtra that the BJP could never forget Lord Ram as Ram-Rajya symbolised good governance.

"The third and the final phase of the campaign will be launched on the party's foundation day on April 6 when the party's top brass will address public meetings across the country," Party general secretary and spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters.

Vajpayee, along with Advani, would jointly address a public meeting at the Prime Minister's constituency, Lucknow, on the eve of the campaign launch, Naqvi added.

To a specific question, party spokesman and law minister Arun Jaitley said there was no special significance to Advani beginning his rally from Ayodhya.

"It happens to be geographically near Lucknow and falls on the route of the Porbandar-to-Puri leg of his Bharat Uday Yatra," he said.

In Bangalore, BJP President Venkiah Naidu emphasised the negative elements in the Congress campaign by asserting that the BJP's progrmmes and campaign were futurastic.

"The Congress is running a vicious and negative campaign with advertisements of people weeping, sleeping, grumbling and cribbing, thereby lowering the prestige of the country," he said

"Are you campaigning for your failure in the last 50 years by projecting problems of poverty, hunger and suicides by farmers", he said in a poser to the Congress.

"By talking about suicides by farmers, the Congress is damning it's own state governments", he maintained.

The Congress had been promising 'free power' to farmers and reduction of interest on agriculture loans to as low as one per cent in Andhra Pradesh, he said, adding that "you cannot mislead people" as the situation was different in Congress ruled Karnataka.

The BJP, he said, wanted a debate with the Congress on the issue of development during their years in power and during Vajpayee's rule.

"The Congress' vicious and negative campaign will boomerang on them. A negative campaign will get negative results," Naidu said.