BJP leaders start Yatras on April 6, states on alert

New Delhi, Apr 2: Opposition leader in Lok Sabha L K Advani and BJP president Rajnath Singh start their 5,800 km-long Bharat Suraksha Yatra to draw people's attention towards ''jihadi and Left wing extremism and the politics of minoritiyism'', from Dwarka and Puri on April 6.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry has asked all the Chief Secretaries and the Directors Generals of the states to provide all out security to the leaders in the wake of intelligence inputs that the Yatras are 'fraught with risks'.

The Yatras, announced the after the terrorist attack at Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi, will not touch any of the five states where Assembly elections are being held.

Barring the North-East, the two leaders will criss-cross about 10 states from East to West before reaching Delhi on May 10.

''We intend to focus on national security threats, both from the internal and external sources,'' senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu, who is the overall in-charge of the twin Yatras, said.

During their Yatra, the leaders will also highlight what they call is the misuse of democratic institutions for the sake of protecting the minority vote banks.

The Yatra -- originally planned as National Integration Yatra -- will be a sort of political pilgrimage to furthering the cause national interests. ''The Yatra is our chosen medium to awaken patriotic fervor in the minds of people,'' he said.

Notwithstanding Mr Naidu's claims that his party was using the Yatras as a political pilgrimage, it was former Telugu Desam Party supremo N T Rama Rao who successfully used the tactic to wrest power from the Congress in early 80s, much before the BJP adopted it at the national level for Mr Advani's 'Ram Rath Yatra' in late 80s.

Even Former Karnataka Chief Minister Rama Krishna Hegde too used this mode to retain power for his Janata Party in 1984 Assembly elections.

Mr Advani has undertaken three yatras -- 'Ram Rath Yatra', 'Swarna Jayanti Yatra' and 'Bharat Uday Yatra' -- while senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi had undertaken the 'Kanyakumari to Kashmir Ekta Yatra'.

Mr Advani will begin his Yatra from Dwarka while Mr Singh will start it from Puri.

Although the yatras have received the 'blessings' of the RSS, insiders say, it may not elicit its ''active support'' because the organisation's focus will be on training camps in Nagpur in which delegates form 26 states would participate. The camps are organised during the vacation months of April, May and June.

The BJP is also attempting to wipe out the feeling that BJP president has been given ''dry states'' like Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana where the party has nearly no base, while reserving ''strong corridors'' for Mr Advani.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shiv Raj Singh Chauhan would accompany Mr Advani in their states.

Mr Advani's first rally will be at Rajkot in Gujarat touching Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat before moving to Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the first phase and take a break for addressing election rallies in West Bengal.

He is scheduled to address meetings in Madhya Pradesh towns, like Shahdol, Sihora, Jabalpur, Bhopal and Indore and the temple town of Ujjain.

In Rajasthan, Mr Advani will address meetings at Bhilwara, Jaipur, Dausa and Bharatpur while in Uttar Pradesh he will hold rallies at Jhansi, Moth, Akbarpur, Kanpur, Unnao, Lucknow, Shahjahanpur, Farrukhabad, Etah and Meerut. The yatra will culminate at Delhi on May 10, after his last rally at Sonepat, Haryana.

Mr Rajnath, who begins his Yatra from Puri will address rallies at Bhubaneshwar, Talcher, Rourkela, Raigarh, Jashpurnagar, Ranchi, Gaya, Ara, Gopalganj, Varanasi, Allahabad, Bachnama, Shivgarh, Lakhipur Kheri, Pilibhit, Kashipur, Dehra Dun, Bilaspur, Shahpur, Udhampur, Pathankot, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Hanumangarh, Bikaner, Sikar, Hisar, Rohtak before reaching Delhi.

Former Union Ministers Ananth Kumar and Vijay Goel will be travelling throughout the stretch, coordinating the yatras.

UNI