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Journalism of Courage
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said today that pollsters may be into ‘‘electoral arithmetic’’ that may not favour the BJP but the ‘‘pro-BJP chemistry’’ was certainly in the party’s favour.
‘‘When we went for early elections, people told us that the BJP had already reached saturation point and asked where will it get extra seats from,’’ said Advani. ‘‘But our belief that the chemistry was in favour worked.’’
Speaking to The Indian Express on his way to campaign for Minister of State Chaman Lal Gupta in the border town of Hiranagar, Advani ruled out any post-poll alliance with NCP leader Sharad Pawar. But he indicated concern over AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa’s ability to muster a significant number of seats in this elections.
As for TDP, Advani was more confident saying that Chandrababu Naidu would come back to power even though by reduced numbers.
The pre-election ‘‘general chemistry’’ in favour of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Advani said, was akin to a wave in favour of the Janata Party in 1977 and the Congress in 1984. ‘‘While everybody is into electoral arithmetic, no pollster or exit poll can predict the outcome of this pro-BJP chemistry,’’ he said.
While this would benefit the BJP, Advani said he wasn’t so sure about its impact on the BJP’s allies. ‘‘Some of the NDA allies like JD(U) have problems of their own…in fact acute problems,’’ he said.
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Advani addressed two rain-hit rallies here and in Hiranagar, he asked for votes in the name of Vajpayee and the stability plank. He told the audience that he would be surprised if the Congress numbers in the 14th Lok Sabha would cross the three-digit mark.
On the party’s prospects in UP, he said: ‘‘After Kalyan Singh joined the party, there have been no problems in UP.’’ Asked about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi being called to push the party in UP, he said: ‘‘Programmes for leaders like Narendra Modi had been chalked out much earlier.’’
On Vajpayee’s remark that there was an ‘‘ideological’’ similarity between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, he said that it was Mulayam Singh Yadav’s stand on the ‘‘foreign origin’’ issue that prevented Sonia Gandhi from forming a government in 1999.
He said there was no significant split in the Muslim vote in UP and felt that the SP—rather than the Congress—had a good chance of getting it. On a possible post-poll alliance with Pawar, Advani claimed that pre-poll talks with the NCP leader broke down as he wanted to join hands with the NDA after the election results. He said there was no question of the NDA seeking Pawar after the results.
He said he had talked to both Chandrababu Naidu and Jayalalithaa over the past two days. ‘‘The Congress-TRS alliance will have an adverse impact beyond the Telengana region …and this will help the TDP,’’ he said.
However, the DPM was not so sure of Jayalalithaa even though he claimed that she had the support of the economically weaker sections of society.
