2014 polls: BJP fears minority voters may go with Congress

Mangalore Today/CNN-IBN

New Delhi, April 10: BJP leader Arun Jaitley fears that the polarisation of minority community votes can create problems during the Lok Sabha elections for the party. Jaitley expressed the apprehension at a party meeting and the move is seen as a hurdle in projecting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate even though the party is claiming that all its leaders are united.

 

At the meeting on Sunday Jaitley said that if in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections votes of the minority community had gone to regional parties and not the Congress, then the BJP would have gained a lot of seats. The BJP does not want to give any chance to the Congress to tap the minority votes in the next Lok Sabha elections even though its leaders are not talking openly about it. BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that the entire party was united and the only issue was development.

Even though BJP is not openly admitting, but the party fears about minority votes. A section of the party is already worried about the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance breaking up and if such a situation arises then the Congress will get very potent weapon to target the BJP.

Congress MP and Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said that the BJP’s internal strife is coming out and for the party Delhi is still very far.

It is interesting to note that even though there has been a clamour to project Modi as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, leaders like Shatrughan Sinha and Vijay Goel have praised Lak Krishna Advani and advocated that he would make a good prime minister. Even JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has praised Advani.