Expand BJP base: Thakre
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 3 — The national executive of the BJP at its first post-election meeting, today stopped short of celebrating its impressive showing in 18 states and the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands with the cyclone devastation in Orissa casting its shadow on the session.

The national executive commenced its two-day session with a resolution on the Orissa cyclone where it said that the country should treat it as a national calamity and work together for the rehabilitation of the cyclone-hit people and restoration of infrastructure and communication facilities in the state.

But for the devastation in Orissa the major portion of the session was spent doing a post-mortem of the party’s performance in the recent elections. With the party taking up the states in alphabetical order, the delegates had the pleasant task of analysing only the satisfactory showings. The states where the BJP suffered a setback — Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab — were reserved for discussion later.

The party spokesman, Mr M.Venkaiah Naidu, said an overall analysis showed the party had won 182 of the 339 Lok Sabha seats it contested. Compared to last year where it won as many seats by contesting 388 constituencies — the performance in 1999 was better. In terms of percentage of votes polled by the party, the figures for 335 seats showed that the BJP had secured 22.26 per cent of the votes.

In 1998, the party secured 25.59 per cent votes in the 388 seats it contested.

The national executive noted the BJP had won 25 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and 21 ST seats. Fifteen women candidates had been elected and there was one MP from the minority community.

The party president, Mr Kushabhau Thakre, touched upon the impressive growth of the BJP in the past two decades saying that "from being reduced to the status of a two-seat party in 1980 we have emerged as the largest party in Parliament".

Describing the recent mandate as a vote for the three Ps — Prime Ministerial candidate, the performance of the government and programme for the nation — Mr Thakre said there was a need to build upon it and consolidate the gains.

He said being a ruling party, the BJP had to remain alive to the interests of all sections of society irrespective of their caste, religion, gender or language. In this task, both the party and the government had to play a complementary role, he added.

Mr Thakre also spoke about the "tough decisions" needed to be taken by the government and in this regard said the party had to convince the people that mere sloganeering could not deliver good governance.

He said the party and the government could together provide good governance and in this context added that there were lessons to be learnt from the states where the BJP’s performance had not been up to its expectations.

While complimenting the party for its good performance in the recent poll, he said there was a need to strengthen the organisation in various geographical areas and reach out to more sections of the people.

Mr Thakre also had a dig at the Opposition parties saying that the Congress had touched an all-time low of 112 seats and there was no reason to believe that the party would be able to check the slide.

On the Left parties, he said the "historical blunder" of the Left did not lie in not making Jyoti Basu the Prime Minister in 1996 but in becoming the "palanquin-bearers" of the Congress. "In the event, the Left has been reduced to a mere footnote in history" he added.

Referring to the devastation in Orissa, Mr Thakre appealed to all party workers and well-wishers to mobilise funds for relief work in the state.

Mr Naidu said several state units pledged a total sum of Rs 3.08 crore for relief work in Orissa. The party also called upon all BJP ministers at the Centre and the various states, MPs and MLAs to donate their one month’s salary for cyclone relief.