Advani for clubbing Goa polls with four other assembly elections

New Delhi, Dec 19 (UNI) Asking BJP MPs to gear up for the forthcoming elections in four states, senior BJP leader L K Advani today urged the Election Commission to club the Goa assembly elections along with the other states even it led to advancing the polls by a couple of months.

A demand to this effect was made by Mr Advani while addressing the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting presided over by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Mr Advani asked the MPs to answer the call of the BJP and work wholeheartedly for the party's success in the elections.

Polls to Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab and Manipur are being held in February while elections in Goa are to be held in May-June. There were several instances where the Election Commission had advanced elections when the polls were due in less than six months, BJP Parliamentary Party Spokeperson Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.

Mr Advani, also the leader of Opposition in Parliament, expressed happiness over the overall performance of the Opposition in tackling a host of issues including the UPA's failure to combat and contain terrorism, hike in prices of essential commodities, employment, Muslim appeasement and the Indo-US Nuclear deal. ''I am satisfied with the performance of Opposition in putting the government on the mat in both the Houses,'' Mr Advani said.

During the meeting, the MPs from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan raised the issue of urea shortage in their states. In Madhya Pradesh alone, the government had released less than half of the requirement of eight lakh tonnes, causing a huge shortage, he said. They want to punish the people of the state and discriminate against them, the MPs alleged. The MPs from Chhattisgarh also echoed the views and alleged discrimination against the BJP-ruled states in allocating food grains.

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