Chinmayanand assails BJP leadership

Hardwar, Mar 23 (UNI) Two days after being suspended from the BJP, former Union Minister Swami Chinmayanand today slammed the party saying it was no longer playing the role of a constructive opposition and had become more like the Congress.

Addressing mediapersons here, he said the control of the BJP had been taken over by ''power brokers''. He also blamed senior party leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani for the present sorry state of affairs of the party since they were surprisingly being a mute spectator to it.

''When Draupadi is being subjected to cheerharan(stripping), they have become only mute spectators like Bhishm Pitamah and Dronacharya,'' he said.

Swami Chinmayanand, who is also the co-convener of Uma Bharti's Janadesh Yatra, further said at present BJP workers were completely demoralised and the public was totally disenchanted with the party and now the people wanted a new political alternative to it in the country.

''The new political outfit to be floated by Uma Bharti at the culmination of her Janadesh Yatra at Varanasi on April 30 will emerge as an alternative to the BJP,'' he said.

Just as the BJP, the new avatar of the Jan Sangh, proved stronger than its parent body, in the same way Uma Bharti's new political outfit would replace the saffron party, he claimed.

While affirming that the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya would remain a basic part of the agenda of their party, he also said the ideology of their party would be based on the principles enunciated by Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Shyama Prasad Mukherji, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia.

Replying to a question, he said BJP leaders, in collusion with the Samajwadi Party, had finished the saffron party in UP, once the stronghold of the party.

Replying to another question, he said there was no possibility of a compromise with the present leadership of the BJP and a point of no return had been reached.

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