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BJP revival plan in Uttar Pradesh |
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Taking its defeat in the recent Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh as a challenge, the BJP is trying to put together a re¬vival plan to improve its performance in the state in Lok Sabha elections 2009. BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley, recently given charge of Uttar Pradesh, has been holding meetings in New Delhi and also visiting Lucknow to firm up the strategy to revive the party fortunes. His deliberations with party leaders are focussing on what had gone wrong for the party in the state. Reports say that the BJP leadership is now coming around to accepting that wooing Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati three times and cohabiting with her governments had cost the party dearly. While the BSP support base widened, the BJP’s shrank.
The perception that the BJP helped the Samajwadi Party form a government in the state prevented it from emerging as the alternative when anti-incumbency started working against the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government. The BJP’s vote share in the recent elections came down to just over 17 per cent, a steep fall from a high of about 38 per cent in 1998.
Jaitely appears to have decided now that the BJP should play as an aggressive opposition every time there is an opportunity.
Meanwhile, in Maharashtra, the BJP and the Shiv Sena appear to be moving towards burying the hatchet after differences over the presidential election issue. The Shiv Sena had supported the UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil, and not the NDA0-supported can¬didate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in the presidential election.
BJP president Rajnath Singh reportedly called up Shiv Sena executive president Udhav Thackeray on July 23 night to make it up in the course of a long conversation. Rajnath Singh reported¬ly said, “We are old allies and we are not going to part with you.” Udhav Thackeray on his part, said in Mumbai on July 22 that the decision to continue with the saffron alliance or to walk out of it had to be taken by the BJP.
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