June 4, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1424

NEW DELHI, June 3: India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party will give hardline Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani joint billing with the more moderate Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during campaigns for elections to state assemblies and the Lok Sabha, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

“Both the leaders are very much acceptable among the BJP cadre and the voters,” BJP spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, adding party posters would feature the faces of both men.

“We will openly project Mr Vajpayee as the prime minister. There is no question of a successor, but it is also loud and clear that Mr Advani is number two.”

Mr Vajpayee will be identified as the “development man” and Advani as the “iron man”.

The party is to convene a brainstorming session of 100 leaders later this month to further thrash out electoral strategies.

Elections are due later this year in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Mizoram.

Parliamentary polls are due in October next year, but analysts believe they could be brought forward to as early as February.

The BJP has already said the popular Vajpayee will be its prime ministerial candidate for the elections, but analysts say Advani will rise to the premiership in due course.

Election analyst Yashwant Deshmukh said the joint projection of Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani was a testing of the waters by the BJP.

“They will contest under (Vajpayee’s) name because Advani alone is not in a position to sail them through,” he said.

“But Vajpayee will step down after the parliament elections and pass the baton to Advani. This decision now is to test the waters in the assembly elections — to see how the voters and allies feel about the formula. It is an attempt to define the line of control before elections begin.”

Political commentator Pran Chopra agreed.

“The BJP has to accomplish a smooth transition. And what better way of doing it than projecting the party as being led jointly by Vajpayee dressed up in one role and Advani in another role — the two being equally necessary in government.”

Mr Vajpayee, 78, has suffered repeated ill-health and said after the last parliamentary elections that he would not contest again—AFP