BJP yatra targets Communists

SAFFRON VS RED: Apart from promoting "national integration", Advani’s rath yatra also aims to make forays into the communist bastion.

KOZHIKODE, May 30: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has left no doubt about its intentions. It is clearly targeting the Communist bastion of Kerala as a prospective vote bank. No efforts are being spared to woo the State electorate, a fact borne by BJP president L K Advani’s Swarnjayanti rath yatra which entered the State last week.

This was Advani’s second rath yatra in Kerala. Exactly a year before, he had begun his 35-day Suraj Rath Yatra to Lucknow from Kaladi, the birthplace of Adi Shankara. Leading his party’s fifth rath yatra in his quest for the Delhi throne, he entered the State once again, covering almost all the districts in his hectic three-day schedule. The party’s organisational skill and its ability to mobilise public support have to be credited for making the yatra a success. BJP general secretary Venkiah Naidu admitted that the response in the State went beyond their expectations.

All the meetings were well attended. On the first day itself, as he entered the State from Thalappady on the Kerala-Karnataka border and proceeded to Kozhikode, Advani addressed 10 meetings, all of which were attended by thousands of people. The second day saw him cover the middle belt of the State and on the third day he crossed over to Tamil Nadu through Sengottai.

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Even as Advani advanced on his tour, senior party leader Atal Behari Vajpayee addressed meetings in the State capital. This fact underscores the significance that the BJP leadership accords to Kerala as a potential party constituency.

The BJP, which believes that the Communist bastion is on the brink, has made it a prestige issue. With their Hindutva slogan and nationalist fervour, they hope to defeat their only ideological rival — the strife-torn Congress and the Janata Dal having been dismissed as not being in fighting fit condition. In all his meetings in the State, Advani openly targeted the Communist parties, particularly the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).