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Top BJP leaders favour Hindutva plank
K G Suresh and Parikshit Joshi in Dona Paula |
August 02, 2004 16:18 IST
After marathon discussions till late last night on strenthening the party ahead of assembly polls, top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders began deliberations on the task ahead and the way forward on the third and final day of their brain-storming session in Panaji on Monday.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Leader of Opposition Lal Kishenchand Advani and party president M Venkaiah Naidu are expected to speak on the prevailing political situation in the country and the way forward during the half-day session, party sources said.
Naidu is expected to address the media before the leaders leave for their respective destinations in the afternoon.
Party leaders had deliberated till late last night at the heavily-guarded Goa International Centre on ways and means to expand the party socially, politically and geographically and strenghten it in the wake of the Lok Sabha poll debacle and the coming assembly polls.
In the past three days, the leaders had discussed a wide range of issues including restoring the primacy of ideology and idealism at all levels, feedback received from various states on the reasons for the poll debacle and the functioning of the United Progressive Alliance government.
During the meeting, several leaders including Murli Manohar Joshi and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had suggested a harmonious integration of the Hindutva ideology with the party's social expansion plans.
Vajpayee had yesterday stressed on the need to keep the NDA intact even as the party grows further.
RSS joint secretary in-charge of BJP Madan Das Devi had yesterday asked the party to stick to its Hindutva ideology and train its cadre to effectively propagate it without any deviation.
Heightened security perceptions along the western coast, the withdrawal of support to the BJP-led government in Goa by an independent legislator, the JD(U)'s threat to quit NDA if BJP returnd to Hindutva and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's questioning of NDA's relevance overshadowed the close-door 'chintan baithak', which was barred to the media.