The Hindu Business Line : Advani to undertake yatra in run-up to polls

IN the run-up to the general elections, the Deputy Prime Minister and senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr. L.K. Advani, today fired the initial salvo by announcing his decision to set off the election campaign by undertaking a nationwide yatra to spread the message about the party's vision for the future as well the National Democratic Alliance's agenda for the coming five years.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Mr. Advani said his proposed "Bharat Uday Yatra" would capture both the emerging reality and the strengthening resolve of a resurgent India". "India is shining and the BJP will leave no stone unturned to make sure the message reaches the voters", Mr. Advani said. While recalling his earlier two yatras, Mr. Advani pointed out "a common conceptual and emotional thread of resurgent nationalism" that runs through all of them.

Mr. Advani said the first was the Ram Rath Yatra in 1990 in support of the aspirations for the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the second was the Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra in 1997 to commemorate the golden jubilee of India's Independence and to popularise the BJP's resolve to transform "Swaraj" (self-governance) into "Su-raj" (good governance). In all, the components of good governance would be the principal points of debate, he added.

His two-phase yatra with the first one beginning from Kanyakumari to Amritsar covering 4,125 km would be from March 10 to 26. After a gap of four days to enable him to file his nominations, Mr. Advani would set off on the second leg of his yatra traversing a distance of 3,747 km from Porbandar in Gujarat and to Puri in Orissa on April 14.

Asserting that the focus of the elections for his party as also the NDA allies would be on development and in contrasting the five years of development of his coalition government against the 50 years of development of the previous governments, Mr. Advani said that the idea of making India a developed nation and a superpower remains "a highly powerful" motive force capable of touching the patriotic chord in every Indian, regardless of caste, creed, region, religion, gender or class.