ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

BJP meet opens with call for capturing TN in 2001

The two-day fourth state conference of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu began in Tiruchirappalli today with a call by state unit secretary L Ganesan to workers to prepare the party to capture power by 2001.

The state would join the national mainstream by 2001, he said while addressing newsmen at the conference hall of the Anna stadium, which has been named after slain BJP leader Dr Sridharan.

The two-day event was kicked off with a delegates conference of the state BJP Yuva Morcha after the party flag was unfurled by former state unit chief Vijayaraghavalu.

A galaxy of national BJP leaders have already arrived in the city to attend the conference. Leaders of allied parties, including defence minister and Samata Party leader George Fernandes, are expected tomorrow.

Prime Minister A B Vajpayee arrived in the night from Calcutta. He will address the conference and a rally tomorrow.

Meanwhile, state director general of police F C Sharma, who is supervising the security arrangements at the conference venue, told reporters that the state police were providing fool-proof security. About 8000 security personnel had been deployed for the purpose, he said and added that closed circuit television sets had also been installed at the conference venue as a security measure.

Union Power Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam today asserted that the BJP state conference would lead to the party capturing power in Tamil Nadu by 2001.

It will be a march from Malaikottai (Rockfort) to Fort St George (state secretariat) at Madras, he declared while speaking to reporters at the conference venue.

The two-day conference would serve as the launching pad to realise this ultimate goal and Tamil Nadu would be brought back to the national mainstream by 2001 (when assembly elections are due), he added.

The minister said the Congress had lost power to the Dravidian parties in the state in 1967 as it failed to understand the aspirations and feelings of the Tamils.

He claimed that the people of the state were already fed up with Dravidian rule in the last three decades and were itching to join the national mainstream.

Kumaramangalam said the BJP in the state was being strengthened with a view to capturing power.

Asked whether the BJP would forge alliance with other parties to realise its goal, he said it would be decided later.

The BJYM has decided to observe this year as "youth awakening year", according to Kishan Reddi, general secretary of the All India BJYM.

Addressing the state BJYM conference at the inaugural session of the two-day state BJP conference today, Reddi said the BJYM would organise padyatras, processions and public meetings throughout the country during the year and publicise the achievements of the BJP-led government during its one-year rule so far.

After the youth convention, the BJYM would have full confidence to face challenges and plan for the future, he added.

He said the BJP was now strengthening its base in Tamil Nadu and the BJYM should contribute its mite to achieve this.

Listing the achievements of the one-year-old BJP-led government, Reddi claimed that several long pending issues, including the Cauvery water issue, were resolved only after the BJP-led government assumed power.

In the past 50 years, the successive governments at the Centre, including Congress, did not take any initiative to solve the country's unemployment problem, eradicate corruption or pay attention to agriculture and rural development. On the contrary, the BJP-led government had allotted 60 per cent of the allocation in its first Budget for the development of agriculture and rural development. It had also given top priority to solve unemployment problem and encourage youth development, he added.

The Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha today condemned the state government's "double standards" in the implementation of prohibition.

A resolution passed at the conference said on the one hand the government was propagating the evils of liquor, while on the other it was encouraging the opening of Indian-made foreign liquor shops. This double standard on the part of the DMK government posed a big question mark over the future of youth.

Instead of taking steps to check the free flow of illicit liquor, the government was taking steps to detain the BJP general council member who led a demonstration to protest against the sale of illicit liquor in Dharmapuri district, under the Goondas Act, the resolution said, and condemned the same.

In another resolution, it urged the Union government to ensure that Doordarshan telecast programmes for ten hours in Tamil.

Welcoming the Tamil Nadu government's recent order regarding teaching of Tamil in nursery schools, yet another resolution urged the state government to ensure that the order was applicable both to majority and minority-run institutions.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report