Devil's Advocate: Venkaiah on BJP loss, fixing blame

STATUS QUO: Former BJP president Venkaiah Naidu says party won't blame individuals for election defeat.

            

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The BJP had projected L K Advani as the party's prime ministerial candidate, but the party did miserably against what was hoped and expected by the BJP strategists. Why did the BJP do badly in these elections and where does the responsibility lie? Those were the two key issues that Karan Thapar explored on Devil's Advocate with former BJP president Venkaiah Naidu.

Karan Thapar: Mr Naidu, the BJP has accepted that these results are disappointing. But the truth is that they are much worse than that. In the last year you have seen inflation go above 12 per cent. You have seen the worst terrorist strike in India's 60-year history and the worst economic slowdown that is still continuing.

Can you deny that in these circumstances, you have the best chances to defeat an indifferent Congress government and yet you failed?

Venkaiah Naidu: Definitely, we have failed. There's no denying that bit. But the question is, what were the reasons? That has to be analysed.

Karan Thapar: Absolutely. I come to the reasons in a moment's time. But would you accept that this is a particularly disappointing failure because you had a really good chance to succeed?

Venkaiah Naidu: Yes, we were hoping for the best performance this time. We were also hoping that we will cross the (General Elections) 1999 mark of 182. But the results went otherwise.

Karan Thapar: Now, Arun Jaitley has said that because of fear of instability and the Third Front, the country voted for Congress. But he hasn't explained why in this situation they (voters) preferred Congress over the BJP.

Venkaiah Naidu: One of the reason is that people are tired with the roadblocks and the brakes of the Left and the likes. So they wanted any government at the Centre to be free from this so that they can take the country forward. In that the Congress had an advantage of more presence in more states and also had good alliances.

Also, circumstances helped them in some states like Kerala where there is an anti-incumbency against the government of Bengal and Kerala. They have the biggest issues of the states. BJP could not take advantage of that because our area of influence in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Bengal is comparatively weak.

Karan Thapar: But, can you accept this that although the Congress may have had some advantages, the BJP wasn't trusted to give the stability that the country wanted. That at the end of the day was held against it.

Venkaiah Naidu: I do not think so, Sir. Let me be very frank, we have proved to the country that with 23 parties, we gave for five years an able leader, stable government. Secondly, with the Congress party, you have seen that the PMK is gone, the MDMK is gone, TRS gone, BSP and SP gone, Left party gone, Lalu gone, Ram Vilas is gone too. It has got no logic.

Somewhere, some sort of feeling has crept up that minority, a whole lot of minorities, has moved towards the Congress party. That became an advantage to the Congress party.

Karan Thapar: Alright, let's next come to the reasons why the BJP did so badly. To begin with, can you accept that you that you did not fight the best possible campaign? You raised issues that people thought were irrelevant and didn't strike a chord, ignoring issues that were in your manifesto which could have been much more successful.

Venkaiah Naidu: I do not agree with you, Karanji. Let me very frank. Price rise, farm crisis, unemployment and terrorism were the main issues we have raised. In addition to theses we also raised other issues. But unfortunately, the media never took theses issues seriously and always tried to divert the attention of the people to other issues. This is one aspect.