BJP sounds election bugle at Jaipur

JAIPUR: It was the party worker at the booth level that was the focus of the BJP leadership at the Vijay Sankalp Mahakumbh. It was a show of strength in an election year, so much so that BJP leader L K Advani said, ���I don���t know any other party that can bring together so many booth level workers.���

It was also a massive attempt to reach out and energise its booth levels workers. Moving away from the practice of focusing on leaders and individuals, the BJP sought to push the idea of a team.

Attended by estimated 2 lakh booth-level party workers from across Rajasthan, it was also an opportunity for the leadership to explain to the rank and file the rationale behind dropping many MLAs.

Though the party���s central election committee is expected to finalise the list of candidates for Rajasthan only later this week, it is clear that as much as 30% to 40% of sitting MLAs will be dropped. The party leadership stress on the centrality of the worker and that the party was more important than individual leaders was BJP���s way of containing possible discontent and rebellion once the list of candidates was finalised.

���There is only one candidate, that is the lotus,��� the BJP president Rajnath Singh said. While the Rajasthan elections were the focus of the party workers��� rally, the central leadership of the party ��� L K Advani, Jaswant Singh and Rajnath Singh ��� focused on national issues as well.

Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje urged that the partnership that had put Rajasthan ���on the road to progress��� needed to be sustained, and for that it was required that the BJP retained power. ���The Congress says it wants to build a new Rajasthan. Well it had power for 40 years, what did it do? Our state was a Bimaru state thanks to the Congress. And now we are on the road to progress.���

But the chief minister was quick to point out that the claims of progress were not her own. ���I am not saying this, the prime minister said that Rajasthan was a model state for education, the health minister praised our medical schemes, the power and coal minister our efforts in electricity,��� Ms Raje said.

Team work was the theme of the Rajasthan chief minister as she urged this team of nearly 5 lakh grassroot workers to ensure that the state does not make the ���mistake of falling into Congress hands.���