BJP leaders sing Vande Mataram ahead of National Executive

Dehra Dun, Sep 7 (UNI) BJP leaders, here to attend the party's national Executive beginning later today, began their day by singing 'Vande Mataram' to commemorate the centenary of the National Song.

All the six stanzas of the National Song were sung in a specially conducted 'Vande Mataram gaan sabha'.

BJP president Rajnath Singh and senior party leader L K Advani were present on the occasion. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh were not present at the function as they were attending the recital of the National Song at the party headquarters in New Delhi.

The three-day National Executive is expected to focus largely on the 'failures' of the UPA government on internal security.

The session will commence with the address by BJP president Rajnath Singh. The podium has been appropriately named after the National Song. All top BJP leaders, including Mr Vajpayee, will attend the meeting in this Himalayan state of Uttaranchal, which goes to polls in 2007.

The party, which was on the back foot due to the reverses suffered by the resignations of four Jharkhand ministers from the Arjun Munda government, got a reprieve when State Governor Sibte Razi asked the Chief Minister to prove his majority in the state Assembly by September 15.

The revelations by Abdul Karim Telgi, the kingpin of the notorious stamp paper scam surfaced in the form a compact disc, has provided a major issue to the BJP.

He is alleged to have taken the names of several top UPA leaders among the beneficiaries of kickbacks while undergoing the brain mapping tests at Bangalore.

The party National Executive will discuss among other things the strategies to be adopted by it in the election-bound states of Uttaranchal, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur. The party is confident of putting up a good show in Uttaranchal hoping to ride on the anti-incumbency wave against the Congress government headed by Mr N D Tiwari.

The party is set to project as its chief ministerial candidate MP from Garhwal and former Union Surface Transport Minister Maj Gen B C Khanduri, who had a successful stint in the NDA ministry steering one of the most successful programmes - the much acclaimed development of Highways in the country.

In Punjab, the party has an alliance with Akali Dal (Badal) group. The two parties seek to make an all-out effort to oust the Congress government, led by Capt Amarinder Singh.

Uttar Pradesh, the home state of the BJP President, is the biggest challenge confronting the party. Although the party leaders are putting up a brave face and claim that its performance would be better than last time, the going may not be as smooth as expected.

In Manipur, the party has very little base but hopes to do well.

The executive will, however, be embarrassed to handle the banner of dissidence raised by one of the party legislators in Karnataka, Janardhana Reddy, who has made allegations against the first ever coalition in the state. The party is in power for nearly six months along with the Janata Dal (Secular), led by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda.

The party wants to expose 'failures' of the UPA government be it fiscal management where the common man is feeling the heat of spiralling prices and inflation or the farmers' suicides in some states.

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