05-14-2009, 01:24 AM
<b>BJP asks its spokespersons to play safe, not to over-commit themselves</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Confident about its return to power, the BJP has cautioned its speakers not to over-commit themselves and land up in a situation where their claims about new allies turn counter-productive.
<b>BJP's campaign managers, who reviewed the entire situation after polling for 543 Lok Sabha seats ended on Wednesday, feel the party would alone get 166 seats and the Congress would be restricted to 139 seats. </b>
There is no doubt in the BJP camp that they would need more allies post-results and party spokesmen who would be appearing on television channels have been advised not to take a hard stand against the 'potential' allies.
The party's chief strategist Arun Jaitley who reviewed the post-poll situation with many other senior leaders of the party was clear in his message that all questions about new allies should be avoided as much as possible and no one should be making any commitment.
"We were advised not to speak much on post-poll allies and just avoid the queries by saying that the BJP never discusses alliances through media," a party leader who attended the meet said.
Even the party spokesmen were asked not fall in any "trap of the media" about the President's stand. "The advice from the party high command is to avoid such queries by just saying that we hope President Pratibha Patil would keep in mind the single largest party and the single largest pre-poll alliance before inviting anyone to form the Government," the leader said.
<b>The party is hopeful that not only it would emerge as the single largest party but its NDA would also get more seats than the Congress-led UPA. "We are going to improve our performance in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Karnataka and many more states," Jaitley told The Pioneer. </b>
<b>According to its own calculations, done by psephologist and party's national executive member GVL Narsimha Rao, BJP was getting 22 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 14 in Maharashtra, 10 in Bihar, 20 in Karnataka, 19 in Gujarat, 5 in Assam and 9 in Jharkhand.
The party admits it has suffered a huge blow in Rajasthan where its tally would decrease by 11 seats. Also, its alliance with the INLD could at best get 4 seats while there would be a loss of three seats in Madhya Pradesh where its seats share would get down to 22 from 25 seats. </b>
Party internal surveys have predicted that its tally refused to improve in Delhi where it is going to be a statues quo _ Congress getting six seats and the BJP just one. Also, it is getting seven out of 29 seats in other States and union territories.
<b>BJP's surveys indicate the Janata Dal (United) would be its biggest pre-poll ally with 18 seats, followed with Shiv Sena with 13 seats, Rashtriya Lok Dal with five seats, Asom Gana Parishad and Shiromani Akali Dal with four seats each and Indian National Lok Dal with just two seats. </b>
Pre-poll NDA allies, according to BJP's estimates, add up to 51 seats, making it abundantly clear that the NDA would require the support of many more parties from the UPA and the Third Front to reach to the magic figure.
Incidentally, NDA's prime ministerial candidate LK Advani had a discussion with BJP president Rajnath Singh and former party chief M Venkaiah Naidu about the post-result scenario and the prospect allies. They believed that Third Front was going to collapse in the lack of any ideological binding and many of its allies would be scouting for new poles to align with.
<b>"The BJP will emerge as the single largest party and the BJP-led NDA will get a majority or will fall short by a small margin in which case I am confident that other political parties will support us,"</b> Singh told mediapersons after the meeting.
While party leaders remain tight-lipped about the fine details of the discussion, sources pointed out that J Jayalaltihaa of the AIADMK, Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP and Mayawati of the BSP were the "areas of interest". There is no difference within the BJP over doing business with Naidu or Jayalaltihaa but a section of the party is opposing the idea of exploring the possibilities of a tie-up with Mayawati.
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<b>BJP's campaign managers, who reviewed the entire situation after polling for 543 Lok Sabha seats ended on Wednesday, feel the party would alone get 166 seats and the Congress would be restricted to 139 seats. </b>
There is no doubt in the BJP camp that they would need more allies post-results and party spokesmen who would be appearing on television channels have been advised not to take a hard stand against the 'potential' allies.
The party's chief strategist Arun Jaitley who reviewed the post-poll situation with many other senior leaders of the party was clear in his message that all questions about new allies should be avoided as much as possible and no one should be making any commitment.
"We were advised not to speak much on post-poll allies and just avoid the queries by saying that the BJP never discusses alliances through media," a party leader who attended the meet said.
Even the party spokesmen were asked not fall in any "trap of the media" about the President's stand. "The advice from the party high command is to avoid such queries by just saying that we hope President Pratibha Patil would keep in mind the single largest party and the single largest pre-poll alliance before inviting anyone to form the Government," the leader said.
<b>The party is hopeful that not only it would emerge as the single largest party but its NDA would also get more seats than the Congress-led UPA. "We are going to improve our performance in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Karnataka and many more states," Jaitley told The Pioneer. </b>
<b>According to its own calculations, done by psephologist and party's national executive member GVL Narsimha Rao, BJP was getting 22 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 14 in Maharashtra, 10 in Bihar, 20 in Karnataka, 19 in Gujarat, 5 in Assam and 9 in Jharkhand.
The party admits it has suffered a huge blow in Rajasthan where its tally would decrease by 11 seats. Also, its alliance with the INLD could at best get 4 seats while there would be a loss of three seats in Madhya Pradesh where its seats share would get down to 22 from 25 seats. </b>
Party internal surveys have predicted that its tally refused to improve in Delhi where it is going to be a statues quo _ Congress getting six seats and the BJP just one. Also, it is getting seven out of 29 seats in other States and union territories.
<b>BJP's surveys indicate the Janata Dal (United) would be its biggest pre-poll ally with 18 seats, followed with Shiv Sena with 13 seats, Rashtriya Lok Dal with five seats, Asom Gana Parishad and Shiromani Akali Dal with four seats each and Indian National Lok Dal with just two seats. </b>
Pre-poll NDA allies, according to BJP's estimates, add up to 51 seats, making it abundantly clear that the NDA would require the support of many more parties from the UPA and the Third Front to reach to the magic figure.
Incidentally, NDA's prime ministerial candidate LK Advani had a discussion with BJP president Rajnath Singh and former party chief M Venkaiah Naidu about the post-result scenario and the prospect allies. They believed that Third Front was going to collapse in the lack of any ideological binding and many of its allies would be scouting for new poles to align with.
<b>"The BJP will emerge as the single largest party and the BJP-led NDA will get a majority or will fall short by a small margin in which case I am confident that other political parties will support us,"</b> Singh told mediapersons after the meeting.
While party leaders remain tight-lipped about the fine details of the discussion, sources pointed out that J Jayalaltihaa of the AIADMK, Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP and Mayawati of the BSP were the "areas of interest". There is no difference within the BJP over doing business with Naidu or Jayalaltihaa but a section of the party is opposing the idea of exploring the possibilities of a tie-up with Mayawati.
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