BJP Executive to be held in Ludhiana from May 25

New Delhi, May 1 (UNI) The three-day National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party, to be chaired by party president Rajnath Singh for the first time, will be held from May 25 at Ludhiana in Punjab.

The issues that would figure in this meeting include the review of the party's performance in the assembly elections in Asom, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

The party is expecting a good peformance in Asom where it hopes to get more seats in the assembly than its previous strength of nine MLAs. The party is confident of winning two seats and to open its account in Kerala.

''We have no big stakes in any of these assemblies but opening our account in Kerala and garnering substantial votes in Tamil Nadu would certainly be adding feathers in to the BJP's cap,'' a party leader said.

The other issue that is bound to come up will be the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha byelections where the party has fielded Mr Vinay Katiyar to take on Congress president Sonia Gandhi who resigned her seat following the offices of profit controversy.

Ms Sonia Gandhi has not only resigned as the Chairperson of the National Advisory Council but also from a host of entities including the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

Within the BJP there has been trouble with expelled party leader Uma Bharti floating her own poltical outfit, the Bharatiya Janashakti Party at Ujjain yesterday. Several senior leaders including former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana, former Union Ministers Sangha Priya Gautam and Swami Chinmayananda have openly associated with the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister.

The party will also take note of the simultaneous Bharat Suraksha Yatra undertaken by Mr Rajnath Singh and senior party leader L K Advani who together would have covered a distances of over 6000 kms by road.

The executive was scheduled to be held in Guwahati but was cancelled because of the announcement of Asom election dates.

The BJP will certainly be feeling the absence of its leader Pramod Mahajan, who is battling for his life at Mumbai after being shot by his younger brother.

Mr Mahajan being the host had virtually scripted the five day National Executive-cum-Plenary session held during the year ending 2005. The executive also saw the change of power from Mr Advani to Mr Singh.

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