BJP may not repeat 'failed' partnership with BSP

Says its prime focus will be to ensure national security.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today gave the first hint about its post-poll alliance plans when it called its experience with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) twice a “failed experiment” and said it was unlikely to repeat that partnership in forming the government.

“In the last two years, our party has grown in Uttar Pradesh as a major anti-Samajwadi Party and anti-BSP force. Hence, a tie-up with these parties is unlikely,” BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said at a press conference in Allahabad. Jaitley is also the party’s in-charge for Uttar Pradesh.

This puts a totally new perspective on government formation if, as widely expected, the 15th Lok Sabha is a hung house where the difference between competing alliances is small.

Jaitley also brushed aside the party’s recent break-up with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa, saying “we may have lost one ally but we have gained new ones like the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Assam and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in UP.”

Charging the Congress-led government at the Centre with being lax in dealing with the issues of terrorism and unemployment, Jaitley expressed confidence that the BJP’s “proactive” stance on these issues will ensure the party’s success in the coming Lok Sabha elections, starting April 16.

“Terrorism and unemployment are the two biggest problems that the nation is facing. The Congress has been lax in tackling both of these. On the other hand, we had been proactive while in power and have maintained the spirit even when we are in the Opposition. People of the country will definitely notice the difference and vote in our favour,” the BJP leader said.

Voicing concern over the terrorist attacks in the past few years and “recent intelligence inputs of the Taliban working towards spreading its tentacles in the country”, Jaitley alleged that the Congress-led government “has chosen to accord greater priority to its vote-bank politics by scrapping the anti-terror law POTA, refusing to punish the Parliament attack accused and deceiving the people by saying that there was no need for a stringent law to combat terrorism.”

“We, on the other hand, have always given top priority to national security. Today, when Taliban seems to have become an ideology which threatens to spread its reach to our country, the BJP with its consistently tough stand can ensure national security,” Jaitley said.

He also attacked the UPA government, saying it “had come to power with the promise of providing 10 million jobs every year but its policies has resulted in loss of employment to 15 million people.”

“The NDA government headed by us had taken up massive infrastructure building schemes like the Golden Quadrilateral project and expanding the network of village roads. Unfortunately, the UPA has slowed down the process. This has resulted in worsening of the unemployment situation, as infrastructure building is a labour-intensive exercise,” Jaitley said.