NEW DELHI, 22 April 2004 — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called yesterday for stronger bonds between Hindus and Muslims to foster a spirit of “brotherhood” that would strengthen the nation as voters geared up for a second round of polling in general elections.
Vajpayee’s appeal came after a campaign in which his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) played down its hard-line Hindu image and sought to build bridges with minority Muslims as part of a drive to pitch itself as a mainstream party.
Indians go to the polls today in the second of five phases of the polls, with the BJP cheered by exit polls from the first round pointing to them retaining power.
“I have been striving for years that Hindus and Muslims in the country live together, foster brotherhood, help each other and make each other secure so that together they could take the country forward,” Vajpayee, seen as the moderate face of the BJP, told a group of Muslims at his New Delhi residence.
Vajpayee said he was sure Muslims shared his sentiments.
Indian Muslims have realized “their progress is possible only if people work and live together,” he added.
Referring India’s cricket team which this month finished its first full tour of Pakistan after a gap of 15 years, Vajpayee noted some players were Muslims.
“I didn’t see any difference among the players. There was only one color visible that was of brotherhood. I want that this color should be more deep.”
At a BJP meeting later in the day, party stalwarts pondered over on what should be their next strategy. They decided to focus on Uttar Pradesh that sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha, development issues and on appealing to Muslim voters to give BJP a “chance.”
The meeting was attended by Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley and party General Secretary Pramod Mahajan.
With Muslims forming around 15 percent of India’s population, their vote holds crucial importance. The so-called Hindu vote bank is riven with divisions along caste, class and regional lines.
In the coming days, BJP plans to focus on UP. Muslims form around 17 percent of the population in UP and in several areas are close to a majority.
Split in the anti-BJP Muslim votes is said to have contributed to BJP winning 29 seats in UP during the 1999 elections.
Shocked by the Gujarat carnage and unwilling to trust the BJP for another term in Parliament, the All India Milli Council has chalked a strategy to give the party a “crushing defeat” in UP. It has appealed to Muslims and secular forces to support Samajwadi Party in 14 seats, the Congress in nine, the Bahujan Samaj Party in three and Lok Janshakti Party and Samajwadi Janata Party in one seat each from among the 32 parliamentary seats where the polling will be held on April 26.
The council had arrived at this decision after conducting a survey of these constituencies. The council spokesman, Kamal Farouqui said in Lucknow, “We wanted all secular forces to unite so that BJP could be given a crushing defeat, but unfortunately this did not happen. Hence, through our survey, we have identified parties and candidates who are in a position to defeat the BJP.”
The exit polls from initial voting yesterday in which more than 100 million people turned out to elect 140 MPs to the 545-member lower house showed Congress narrowing the lead of the ruling Hindu nationalists but still losing.
Displaying confidence about returning to power, BJP President Naidu said, “Our assessment of the trends are encouraging. We are comfortably placed. We reiterate our appeal to the people to give us a decisive mandate, a bigger mandate to help us accomplish many big tasks outlined in the National Democratic Alliance agenda.”
He appealed to the minorities, particularly Muslims to give the party an “opportunity once.”
In an effort to make up for Vajpayee’s earlier statement regarding his running a 22-party coalition, BJP said yesterday that he was not averse to running a coalition government. Vajpayee, however, favored a coalition with fewer parties. Vajpayee’s office distributed written copies of his speech, highlighting reference to coalitions. “I can understand an alliance of one, two, three, four parties...But 22 parties — people wonder how we run such a coalition.”
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, Congress candidate from Amethi and son of party Chief Sonia Gandhi. has decided to campaign and hold road-shows in several districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh from today
In his first phase of electioneering, the junior Gandhi will visit Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Basti and adjoining districts in the politically-sensitive eastern UP and address people ahead of the April 26 balloting.
After eastern UP, Rahul will continue his road-shows in other parts of the state for the second and third phase of electioneering on May 5 and 10 in the state, party sources said.
Sonia Gandhi, battling to save her party from defeat, headed yesterday to her constituency of Rae-Bareli in the pivotal Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh where she launched a stinging attack on the ruling coalition.
“The BJP-led alliance was given an opportunity by the people for five years,” she told villagers as she campaigned in blistering heat in the constituency, a bastion of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty that dominated India’s first half century of independence.
“But instead of taking advantage of the mandate and doing something beneficial to the people, they only made tall promises,” she said.
