Rajnath admits to 'shortcomings' in LS poll

Lucknow, July 26 (PTI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
chief Rajnath Singh on Sunday said there were "shortcomings"
that led to party's debacle in Lok Sabha (Lower House of
Indian Parliament) polls and called for an "introspection",
but vowed not to compromise on Hindutva for "the sake of
power".
"After Lok Sabha polls there was an outcry that BJP
should reconsider its ideology. Why should we re-reconsider
it? Was there any referendum done on the Hindutva ideology?"
Singh said during state working committee meet here.

"We cannot compromise on our values as they have given
us a special identity. We cannot dump our values for the sake
of power."

Stating that the so called secularists do not even
want the word 'Hindu' to be mentioned, the saffron leader
said, "Those who want to create rift among people on caste and
communal lines and promote enmity are creating this confusion
by limiting Hindu and Hindutva to certain boundaries."

On party's poll debacle he said, "There were some
shortcomings as the party's base declined a bit and we failed
to win over the trust and confidence of people."

"We should introspect if we were active in our areas
and as to why we failed to win confidence of people, despite
all agitations and struggle on public issues."

"The problem is not with the workers or the people,
but with you and me (leaders)," he told the state committee.

He said said the party would introspect and identify
t
he causes behind its failure and take corrective measures.
"Irrespective of the fact that we do not get power for
another five or ten years, we will stick to our ideology," he
said and exhorted party workers to move ahead with conviction.

"Any person or political party which abandons its
original character cannot survive for long," he said and
claimed that "BSP started with bahujan samaj and then moved to
sarv samaj, now it is back to bahujan samaj. See where the
party is today."

He said even the Left paid price for deviating from its
ideology. "People in West Bengal realised that CPI-M was no
longer talking about welfare of all and it was reduced to
16 seats in Lok Sabha. Trinamool Congress raced ahead mainly
due to struggle of it's leader on issues related to public."

Alleging that Congress-led United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) was not capable of safeguarding unity and integrity of
the country, he asked partymen to raise these issues among
people.

On state politics the BJP chief said, "Both the parties
(SP, BSP) are two sides of the same coin. People voted in
favour of BSP (in 2007) as they felt that it can remove
anarchy of the SP regime, but it turned out to be worse. There
is no government in the state."

"If we look from national perspective, relevance of
regional parties like SP and BSP is nearing an end and the
country is heading towards a bi-polar polity," the BJP
president said. PTI SAB
SDE