BJP fine-tunes Vande Mataram strategy

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's surprise absence at an event marking Vande Mataram centenary on Thursday supplied new ammunition to the Bharatiya Janata Party to attack the ruling party as it announced plans to step up its campaign on the national song ahead of Assembly polls in several states.

At its office bearers' meeting, the saffron party decided to form a special committee to work out its Vande Mataram strategy in the light of Gandhi skipping a Congress event commemorating the centenary of the adoption of the national song.

Party leaders Arun Jaitely, M Vankaiah Naidu, Sanjay Joshi and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will be part of a special committee on the BJP's Vande Mataram campaign, a party source said.

"The BJP can surely benefit from Gandhi's moves as it tries to rework its nationalist agenda," a party leader said.

The office bearers' meeting hours before the start of the national executive also focused on the BJP's election plans especially for Uttar Pradesh, where the party has promised to mandate 'Vande Mataram' if voted to power there.