09-07-2006, 08:16 PM
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'> September 07, 2006
BJPâs Bullet
Why did Sonia miss Vande Mataram.</span></span>
Press Trust of India
Posted online: Thursday, September 07, 2006 at 1431 hours IST
Updated: Thursday, September 07, 2006 at 1433 hours IST
Dehradun, September 7: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's surprise absence at an event marking Vande Mataram centenary on Thursday supplied new ammunition to the BJP 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 focussed on the BJP's election plans especially for Uttar Pradesh, where the party has promised to mandate Vande Mataram if voted to power there.
Emerging out of the meeting, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi and M Venkaiah Nadu flayed the Congress president for not participating in the group singing of Vande Mataram at her party office in Delhi.
Naidu insisted that Gandhi's absence during the singing of the national song was an instance of vote-bank politics.
"It is absolutely wrong, unacceptable. She should have sung it," Joshi said<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'> September 07, 2006
BJPâs Bullet
Why did Sonia miss Vande Mataram.</span></span>
Press Trust of India
Posted online: Thursday, September 07, 2006 at 1431 hours IST
Updated: Thursday, September 07, 2006 at 1433 hours IST
Dehradun, September 7: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's surprise absence at an event marking Vande Mataram centenary on Thursday supplied new ammunition to the BJP 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 focussed on the BJP's election plans especially for Uttar Pradesh, where the party has promised to mandate Vande Mataram if voted to power there.
Emerging out of the meeting, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi and M Venkaiah Nadu flayed the Congress president for not participating in the group singing of Vande Mataram at her party office in Delhi.
Naidu insisted that Gandhi's absence during the singing of the national song was an instance of vote-bank politics.
"It is absolutely wrong, unacceptable. She should have sung it," Joshi said<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->