Vajpayee applauds Rajnath, BJP's Uttaranchal unit

Dehradun, Sep 9 (UNI) Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today lauded BJP chief Rajnath Singh for taking the party in the right direction and the Uttaranchal state unit for organising yesterday's impressive rally.

Mr Vajpayee in his concluding remarks at the three-day National Executive said the presence of a huge number of people at last night's ''Parivartan Rally'' despite the continuous rains was indicative of the people's intention. He advised the local unit not to remain confined to local issues at the polls but lay a comparative assessment and analysis before the people to make their own judgement.

The former Prime Minister said the BJP is quite strong in Uttaranchal and the dissatisfaction of the people against the Congress government was evident and the party should utilise the opportunity to carry out a campaign highlighting the failures and non-performance of the state government for the last five years.

BJP Spokesman Arun Jaitley said Mr Vajpayee congratulated the BJP Chief for providing right directions to the party. Asked if this meant the BJP President is assured of a full term, he said the issue would be decided at an appropriate time.

To a question on the absence of senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi in last night's rally, Mr Jaitley said Dr Joshi being the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce had to be in Delhi to hold a joint meeting with the visiting French commerce delegation.

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