BOMBAY, 20 June 2003 — The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership yesterday came out strongly in support of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for his peace initiatives toward Pakistan, a party statement said.
On the third day of a four-day strategy meet at Uttan near Thane, the leaders also discussed the party’s preparedness for October 2004 parliamentary elections, with sources indicating that a section of the leadership was in favor of conducting elections ahead of schedule.
Echoing the leaders’ positive sentiment toward Vajpayee’s peace moves, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, who arrived here in the early hours of yesterday from a 10-day visit to the United States and Britain, said the initiative had received global acclaim.
“It has once again convinced the international community of the prime minister’s efforts to establish peace and normal relations with Pakistan and to resolve all bilateral issues with our neighbor through dialogue,” Advani said in a written statement issued here at the end of a third day of deliberations by the BJP leadership on electoral strategy.
The leaders also noted the government’s drive against cross-border militancy in Kashmir and said the drive should be further intensified.
On Wednesday, Vajpayee said the government’s efforts against insurgency into Kashmir from the Pakistani zone of the disputed state were becoming effective.
Vajpayee had also told the BJP leaders that the party could sweep to re-election in national polls due next year on a platform of stability. He called on activists to take advantage of a “favorable atmosphere”.
The BJP leaders consumed most of their time discussing realignment and non-alignment with some of the components in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) before the forthcoming elections, a senior BJP leader told Arab News on telephone.
He said a few of present partners in the alliance might be thrown out, but a final decision was yet to be taken.
