BJP smells early poll, turns to Ram again

Talk of impending mid-term poll has sent the BJP back to Ram to improve its electoral fortunes. The party, at its National Executive in Bhopal, passed a last-minute resolution supporting the demand of the VHP that the alignment of the Sethu Sethusamudram project be changed to spare the Ram Sethu.

Senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi drafted and moved the resolution, which said, "The movement for protection, preservation and declaration of the Sethu as a national heritage monument is being conducted by the Rameshwaram Ram Sethu Raksha Manch. It is a national issue, supported by people cutting across political parties, religious creeds and beliefs and the party will render all the support needed by the Samiti from the BJP." He, however, made it clear the party would not lead the movement. Joshi said even on the Ram Janmabhoomi issue, the BJP had not "promised to build a temple at Ram Janmabhoomi, it was the Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas which had taken the responsibility."

At a rally later, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, LK Advani, said he expected the mid-term poll soon and the formation of the 15th Lok Sabha in the first half of 2008. "Ram is maryada purushottam. Those who discredit him and question his existence will soon realise the cost of it," he said.

In a rare moment, Advani took time to praise Joshi and party President Rajnath Singh "" his known detractors "" giving a signal that he was willing to be magnanimous in the face of an impending challenge for the party.

It was a day of announcements with the party deciding to reserve at least 33 per cent seats in all organisational bodies for women, the first such move by any political party in India. The aim appears to be taking the women's empowerment plank, appropriated by the Congress after the election of Pratibha Patil as president. Senior leader Sushma Swaraj, who headed a committee on the issue, made the announcement, saying it would help foster women leaders in the party.

To complete the BJP's positioning as an upper caste party, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced setting up of a commission to look into the welfare of the poor among the general category. "Poverty does not know any caste or religion and poor people suffer equally," he said.

The BJP carefully started putting in place some set pieces of its campaign for an anticipated mid-term poll. The vexed question of who will lead the campaign is, however, still in the air.