Govt trapped in anti-BJP mode, distracted: Advani

POWER POLITICS: I see NDA coming back to power and continuing the good work we did, says Advani.

        

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Rajdeep Sardesai

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Keywords: General Elections, Karnataka

After the BJP’s landmark victory in Karnataka there is a going belief that maybe the NDA now is ever closer to power at the Centre with the General Elections just nine months away. One man then could be the country’s prime minister-in-waiting. Is he that? Let’s find out from the man himself – leader of the Opposition LK Advani.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Congratulations on the victory in Karnataka. Am I right in saying prime minister-in-waiting?

LK Advani: Thank you. My party has declared me their candidate. Otherwise I used to say that it is only practised in UK that whosoever is the leader of the Opposition is supposed to be the prime minister-in-waiting. In my case the party itself has formally declared it.

Rajdeep Sardesai: The reason I am saying this is because there is a going belief now – which Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi quite openly said – that the road to Delhi leads through Bangalore. Do you believe in that sense that it’s a turning point? Does it propel you towards the Centre?

LK Advani: The road to Delhi was an appropriate phrase before 1998. We used to say the road to Delhi is through UP and etcetera, etcetera. Today it is going to be NDA’s return to Delhi. It’s not going to be the first time that we would be going to Delhi.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Sure, but in that sense what do you mean that it’s a turning point?

LK Advani: I meant it in a different way altogether, and that was when I look at the electoral history of independent India and where Jan Sangh and BJP have been placed in it.

I regarded 1989 as the turning point in the history of BJP as much as in 1984 when we were at our lowest point. We had then got only two seats in the Lok Sabha. And suddenly in 1989 when we made a big leap forward and got 86 seats and after that continuously kept growing and it became unstoppable until we reached 1998, formed a government and ruled for six years. Therefore, the turning point in our history was 1989 in terms of aggregate strength. But all our strength that was derived from ’89 to ’98 was from northern, western, central and eastern India but upto Orissa and Bihar.

Rajdeep Sardesai: So, this is the big breakthrough in the south. This geographic breakthrough that you see as a turning point. But are you saying that finally in a sense the BJP, and in its earlier avtaar the Jan Sangh, has shed the image of a party of Hindi, Hindu and the Hindustan?