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Rediff.com  » Election » BJP to go it alone in J&K

BJP to go it alone in J&K

By Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
Last updated on: February 18, 2004 17:10 IST
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The Bharatiya Janata Party will go it alone in the parliamentary polls in Jammu and Kashmir, party president M Venkaiah Naidu said at a rally in Srinagar on Wednesday.

"We will have no poll alliance with any party, not even with National Conference, which was part of the NDA," he said at the Sher-i-Kashmir Park, where a few hundred party workers and supporters had gathered.

Naidu criticised the Congress and said it had misruled the country for 50 years.

"The Congress feels shy of naming its leader while our party has a clear and undisputed leader in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee," he said.

"When you ask Congressmen to name their leader they simply lower their heads without naming anyone. Same is the fate of other parties, including the Leftists who have been wiped out in most of the countries and now face the same plight in India," Naidu said.

He also said the BJP was not anti-Muslim. "This is campaign by our rivals to keep Muslims away from our party. We have so many Muslim governors in various states. No doubt the ratio of Muslim in our party is low. But tell me can you deliver a child without marriage?"

Naidu said development was going to be the key issue in the polls.

He reiterated that the Ayodhya issue should be resolved through consensus among Hindus and Muslims.

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Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar