HVK Archives: BJP to be backseat driver
BJP to be backseat driver - The Indian Express
Arati R Jerath
()
31 March 1997
Title : BJP to be backseat driver
Author : Arati R Jerath
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : March 31, 1997
The Bharatiya Janata Party hopes to fish in troubled waters over
the next few days in a bid to frustrate Congress president Sitaram
Kesri's efforts to form the next government.
An emergency meeting of party office bearers held this evening
decided that the BJP would not press its claim for power at the
moment. Instead, it would seek an opening for power play
behind-the-scenes, which could even mean throwing its weight behind
a faction of the United Front or the Congress.
"The BJP has a role to play in the present Lok Sabha. After all it
is the largest single party. Therefore, it cannot be a neutral
observer," party president L K Advani told correspondents today.
Significantly, both Advani and veteran leader Atal Behari Vajpayee
spoke to Prime Minister Deve Gowda over the telephone this
afternoon, ostensibly to confirm the news of Kesri's abrupt
decision to withdraw support to his government. The real reason,
according to an insider, was to try and read his mind and see what
options were available to the RIP, including the option of bailing
him out if there were tangible advantages in it for the party.
The BJP's intention of being an active participant in the current
power struggle at the Centre was underlined by the decision to
defer the National Council Meet scheduled to begin in Trivandrum on
April 4. An urgent meeting of the national executive has been
summoned in Delhi instead. This will take place next weekend.
Party's main thrust would be to ensure that there is no ganging up
by constituents of the UF and the Congress on an anti-BJP platform
so that the electoral battle would be a three-cornered one.
BJP strategists feel that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu
Naidu is crucial in this and they are likely to focus their
attention on him over the next few days in their bid to keep the UF
and Congress apart.
Party sources disclosed that senior leaders have been in regular
touch with Naidu as well as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi,
hoping for future gains such as an electoral alliance in are as
where the BJP's presence is negligible.
Buoyed by its gains in the recent by-elections to the Lok Sabha and
state assemblies, the BJP estimates that it is well ahead of
others, particularly if the contest is to be multi-cornered.
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