ALLAHABAD, January 23: The Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate, Atal Behari Vajpayee, on Thursday warned people about the dangers of political instability, saying that the country was in such an economic mess that it would have to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund within the next few months.Kicking off the BJP campaign in Uttar Pradesh, Vajpayee received an overwhelming response from a capacity crowd at P O Tandon Park here, which kept clapping for about two minutes to welcome him. Vajpayee, in response, was at his best in his 45-minute speech.``Political instability has sullied India's image abroad, resulted in economic mess and deteriorating law and order,'' Vajpayee said, buttressing the BJP claim of being able to provide a stable government by challenging the Opposition on the same ground. Referring to the United Front and Congress claims, he said: ``People should think about why the 13-party government floundered. They should also ponder on why the UF was formed if it could not provide a stable government.''He warned the gathering that failure to give the BJP a clear verdict would lead to a repetition of events after the last elections, with the UF once again seeking Congress support.This, he said, was the right time for people to call their bluff about the BJP being a ``houwa'' (devil). He cited the resolution on Wednesday of a deadlock between Sunnis and Shias in Lucknow after 21 years - through the intervention of Kalyan Singh - claiming that even Muslims had started trusting the BJP.``Muslims trust the BJP because it never treated them as a vote bank but as human beings, more importantly as sons of Mother India,'' Vajpayee said, appealing to them to shed their prejudices against the BJP and to take a look at the work being done by its State Governments.Nowhere in his speech did Vajpayee touch upon the issue of a temple at Ayodhya. Nor did he speak on Sonia Gandhi's entry into politics or even the Bofors issue.Vajpayee, however, did brand the Congress as a party which patronised corruption and whose leaders had deposited huge sums in Swiss banks. The BJP, on the other hand had an unblemished record, despite being in the Opposition for the past 40 years, he said.On economic policy, Vajpayee said that the BJP swadeshi model did not mean blunting liberalisation. ``BJP wants to provide better employment opportunities and more benefits to the poor,'' he said.Vajpayee also addressed public meetings at Gorakhpur and Varanasi. According to reports, he received an overwhelming response, with people hanging from rooftops and trees.
