Stay clear of factionalism: Vajpayee to BJP

The two top leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party, former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and former deputy prime minister L K Advani, sounded the bugle for the party's preparations for the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh calling it both a challenge and an opportunity.

While Advani cautioned the party on giving tickets to people with criminal backgrounds, Vajpayee asked for return of the vigour in the party which he felt had waned over the last few years due to factionalism. Both leaders stressed that the road to Delhi and victory in the 2009 General Elections was to be through victory in Uttar Pradesh in 2007.

"We all know that the road to Delhi goes through Lucknow, but Lucknow will not come to us, we will have to get her," said Vajpayee at the National Council meet of the party in the city. Vajpayee cautioned the party on factionalism, asking for a return of the old values of the party and the spirited way in which things were done in the past. "There is only one mantra to snatching victory, and that is through working together, there should be no space for factionalism in the party," he said to loud applause.

"I want to return a joyful atmosphere to the party, the way it was before, when colleagues happily spent their youth and life for the party," he said.

Referring to the controversy over nearly a 100 BJP leaders enjoying the Mulayam Singh government's hospitality, he said, "We are grateful to the Mulayam Singh government for extending hospitality, but I cannot forget the beheading of our colleague in Uttar Pradesh over ideological differences," he said.

"The Lucknow council, therefore, is not just about powerbut about asserting our values of nationalism.

The people of Uttar Pradesh must sense the change in the air and prepare themselves for it," he said.