BJP UP Track II: PM for Muslims, Modi for rest

As Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee travelled to Aligarh today to try and reach out to Muslims, his party, jittery over the exit poll res...

As Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee travelled to Aligarh today to try and reach out to Muslims, his party, jittery over the exit poll results, rolled out its heavy armour for the battle of Uttar Pradesh, key for the control of the Centre.

In Aligarh, Vajpayee said the BJP ‘‘cannot in any way be dubbed as anti-Muslim.’’ Asking Muslims to ‘‘give us a chance, we will show how good relations are established,’’ he said: ‘‘You have tested Congress. I don’t want to criticise other parties, you can test them too. But I want you to support us this time.’’

In Delhi, his party had already set in motion an exercise to scatter leaders across Uttar Pradesh and get the numbers right in the state. The desperation showed: from Hindutva torchbearer Narendra Modi to filmstars to pracharaks, all were being directed to Lucknow.

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As many as 26 senior BJP leaders will be in UP until May 8, the last day for Phase Four canvassing. Prime Minister Vajpayee himself will make at least five more rounds of the state: on May 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7.

Apart from Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, party president Venkaiah Naidu, Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Uma Bharati will hold public meetings.

Modi, who had so far been kept out of UP in view of Muslim senstivities, will be touring the state on May 3 and 4. Until now he had been confined to Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Jharkhand while the party courted Muslims with the promise of two lakh jobs for Urdu teachers and liberal grants for madarsas.

The BJP, which hadn’t really tom-tommed its core Hindutva issues, has had a rethink after exit polls suggested that the NDA would fall short of the magic 272 figure. For the home run, the party is hoping its Hindutva votebank will respond adequately.

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Apart from Modi, RSS pracharaks have been summoned to lend a helping hand. Venkaiah Naidu today asked vice-president Pyarelal Khandelwal to cancel his programme of the North-East and take immediate charge of western UP. Another pracharak, general secretary Sanjay Joshi, moved from Lucknow to Agra. Both Khandelwal and Joshi have been told to mass the Sangh cadres for mobilisation of votes and poll booth management.

They will coordinate with mandal organising secretaries of the RSS and full-time election assistants drafted by the BJP. While Joshi has been assigned 28 of the 30 Lok Sabha constituencies slated to go to polls on May 5, Khandelwal is in-charge of 18 seats, 16 of which will see voting on May 10.