Agencies
Times of India
August 26, 1999
Title: BJP will nurture coalition culture: Advani Author: Agencies Publication: Times of India Date: August 26, 1999 JAIPUR: Union home minister L.K. Advani said here on Wednesday that the BJP would establish a strong coalition culture in the country's politics as one-party governments were no more relevant. After arriving here for his two-day Lok Sabha campaign tour of the state, Mr Advani told reporters that the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, scrapping of Article 370 and a common civil code were issues espoused by the BJP and thus not included in the agenda of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The BJP would not raise these issues even if it came again to power at the Centre as ``idealism is more important than ideology for a coalition government'', he said. After 1984, no party has been able to muster a majority in Parliament, he pointed out. Successive governments at the Centre have failed to complete their full tenure as they did not have even the working majority, he added. Asked about dropping contentious issues from the poll agenda, Mr Advani said that he now represented only the BJP and the NDA. The BJP did not have any hidden agenda and had not committed any breach of faith with the voters, he said. The Congress should not criticise the NDA for having too many parties as its constituents, he said. The Congress had itself entered into electoral adjustments with regional parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar, Lok Dal of Ajit Singh in western UP, a faction of the RPI in Maharashtra and with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, he pointed out. ``The Congress is now entering into these unholy alliances only for indulging in its toppling game,'' he alleged. Ridiculing the Congress for making stability a poll plank, Mr Advani accused it of creating political instability in the country whenever it was out of power. He said he had been witnessing elections since 1952 and anti-incumbency factor played a big role in ouster of a government. The NDA had an added advantage as it would not have to face this factor, he said. The Vajpayee government's performance has to its credit the lowest inflation rate, increase in the foreign exchange reserves and a record harvest, he said. As such, the government's track record would dominate the election campaign of the party and its allies and not Kargil and Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, he said. Mr Advani asserted that the BJP would form a coalition government at the Centre even if it managed to get a majority on its own. The alliance partners had earlier reached an agreement on the specific issues to be tackled. Now its partners were contesting with a single agenda that would be the guiding factor in governance also, he declared. In earlier elections, the verdicts had been ``negative'', the formation of the Janata Party government (in 1977) was based on a negative vote with the people expressing their anger at the Emergency, he said. The present elections would, however, be conducted in changed circumstances and the NDA would win easily because of a positive vote based on its performance, he said. Referring to the issue of ``outsiders'' being inducted into various constituencies, Mr Advani said there was no question of anybody being an outsider as every citizen had the right to contest from any Lok Sabha constituency. Regarding dynastic rule, Mr Advani said he had always opposed it even while alloting party ckets.
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