BJP ready with election blueprint as poll clouds loom large

New Delhi, Oct 9 (UNI) With a mid-term poll looming large, the BJP claims it is ready with a blueprint to make the NDA a force to reckon with and take on the challenge of the Congress-led UPA.

The year 2008 is the election year for a dozen states, including Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir. Other states where elections are to be held are Mizoram, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.

BJP is in touch with all parties, including regional ones, for pre-poll alliance. It is also considering micro level understandings in every Lok Sabha seat where there is a possibility of an alliance, BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is incharge of elections said.

The party is leaving nothing to chance and is also ready with its post poll alliances with the parties which do not have open association with it.

The BJP is making every effort to ensure that it is not left behind like in the present Lok Sabha where the party has 138 MPs, just seven short of Congress' 145.

The party would be ready with its panel of contenders for each Lok Sabha constituency. It had also sought a panel from sister organisations and from an 'independent-outsider', Mr Naqvi said.

BJP President Rajnath Singh, Leader of Opposition L K Advani and other top leaders will address about 30 massive rallies across the country and highlight the failures of the UPA on all fronts like stability factor, price rise, inflation, farmers suicides, corruption, wheat import scam, going soft on terrorists and naxalites, POTA, illegal migrants, Sachar panel, reservations and surrender of national interests on the nuclear deal.

''It is a case of ineffective coalition in which many parties call the shots,'' Mr Naqvi said.

The party is also clarifying from the Election Commission if it is going to hold mid-term elections under the present delimitation or implement recommendations of the Delimitation Commission which would come into effect from 2009.

Going by the disinclination of the Centre to implement the recommendations, the BJP is assuming that the elections will be held under the present set up only, he said.

The party is also inducting 12 lakh ideologically committed workers in every polling stations and booths of the country to achieve the much needed 'big push' at the time of elections.

Majority of these identified workers would be inducted into electoral work in all the states. About 200,000 would be inducted in Uttar Pradesh, 1,20,000 in Maharashtra, 100,000 each in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, Madhya Pradesh (90,000), Rajasthan and Gujarat (70,000), West Bengal (45,000), Karnataka (40,000), Chhattisgarh (32,000), Orissa and Punjab (30,000).

Every constituency will have full-time workers in effective numbers, including in Union Territory areas, he said.

Among the states where the BJP is expecting a turnaround in its fortune is Uttar Pradesh where the party has just ten MPs. The next Lok Sabha will certainly see increased number of MPs from that state, Mr Naqvi said.

As a strategy, the party will field its 'bigwigs' from different states to ensure positive effect in eight to ten constituencies in the area.

UNI