BJP scouts for new partners, alliances

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, June 14: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will be expanded by inducting parties which were ready to accept its ...

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, June 14: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will be expanded by inducting parties which were ready to accept its national agenda and A B Vajpayee as Prime Minister, said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and member of Parliament O Rajagopal on Sunday.

Addressing a press meet here, Rajagopal said that the BJP had already consulted several parties in the State, including the Baby John faction of Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP). The response was positive, though no Left Democratic Front (LDF) or United Democratic Front (UDF) constituent had agreed to join the formation, he said, adding that those from both the fronts who did not want a foreigner like Sonia as Prime Minister would support the NDA.

The alliance will field candidates in all 20 seats in the ensuing elections. He expressed the hope that the equi-distance stand adopted by the Nair Service Society would benefit BJP in the elections.

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Asked whether the NDA would field candidates like K R Bhaskaran and KChandrasekharan, Rajagopal said that the party had not conducted any discussion about the candidates for the polls.

Replying a question, he said that Vajpayee’s bus trip to Lahore had enhanced the goodwill of India abroad. Moreover, it also helped the people of both the countries to develop a relationship based on mutual trust. At present, the paramount duty of all political parties was to fight the foreign invader unitedly. “This is not the time to conduct a postmortem to find out whether the policies followed by the government were right or wrong”, he said.