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New-look BJP team seeks a
closer link with people

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The roadmap of the Bharatiya Janata Party's new-look organisational team envisages a closer relationship between the party and the people, chief spokesman Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday.

Briefing reporters after an organisational revamp that put M Venkaiah Naidu at the head of a young team, Jaitley said the new party president had gone to Andhra Pradesh and would return on July 6.

He pointed out that the party's role in being a messenger between the government and the people would actively involve ministers in the Union Cabinet.

He said Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani's willingness to make weekly visits to the party headquarters was a step in this direction and would be emulated by other ministers in the government.

He emphasised that the "feedback" would be utilised by the party leadership to strengthen the organisation "and successful areas would be aggressively projected."

He said party discipline in the states would be fine-tuned, especially in those states where the BJP was in the Opposition.

Jaitley pointed out that the party in these states "planned to have agitational activities which will have to be election-oriented."

"We are starting with this roadmap in mind," he said.

Later, answering questions, he said there was no proposal to change any party state unit presidents. "There is a need to strengthen the state units, but the priority is buttressing the national unit first," he said.

Asked to underline the reasons behind the organisational revamp, he said: "At times there is virtue in the change itself."

"Every team has to try and hasten the pace of activity," he added.

Asked about the proposed 'Gaurav Yatra' in Gujarat which has raised the spectre of fresh communal tension, he said: "[Our] Gujarat unit is a responsible party, the restoration of peace and calm is its first priority."

Asked about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's proposal to trifurcate Jammu and Kashmir, he said: "The RSS has expressed a viewpoint on J&K but it is not necessary that everybody agrees with the viewpoint. Unless there is complete unanimity, it [the trifurcation] is not possible," the BJP spokesman said.

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