Advani to lead party's campaign in AP in March

Hyderabad, Feb 24 (UNI) Anticipating early general elections, the BJP in Andhra Pradesh plans to make all-out efforts in the state to woo voters and has told its cadre to go to the masses extolling the leadership capabilities of its Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani.

The former Deputy Prime Minister would address a rally in the Parade Grounds in Secunderabad in March-end to prepare the party for the Lok Sabha elections sooner than later, BJP State President Bandaru Dattatreya told UNI here.

The exact dates of Mr Advani's visit to the State would be finalised on February 28, he said.

Ahead of the rally, the party would hold seven zonal political meets across the State and reach out to every village with the message that the country needed the leadership of the 80-year-old Advani, who had effectively tackled the ''hydra-headed'' problem of terrorism, insurgency and other threats to the country's internal security effectively as the Home Minister during the then BJP-led NDA regime, Mr Dattatreya said.

''Given the uneasy relations between the Congress and the Left parties and their differences over several issues, we feel that the polls are sure to be held anytime this year,'' he added.

The party would project the Congress' ''dilly-dallying'' on carrying out the death penalty given to Afzal Guru, the convict in the Parliament attack case, as the ''worst form'' of vote bank politics.

The BJP would face the hustings on its own in Andhra Pradesh with the plank of Statehood to Telangana. The BJP, being a national party, could alone deliver upon the promise. ''We want the Congress not to make the Telangana issue occupy centrestage as in 2004, by introducing a Bill in Parliament in the budget session itself.'' The party had made it amply clear that the BJP would extend support to any Bill introduced in Parliament in this regard, he added.

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