NEW DELHI, Aug 3: India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, grappling with a slew of corruption charges and factional infighting, prepared on Saturday to reverse its recent electoral performances with a show of unity in which Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s leadership was publicly endorsed by his perceived challenger, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani.

Addressing the BJP’s National Council meeting to prepare for a round of crucial state polls beginning later this year and the next, both Vajpayee and Advani exhorted the party to brace up.

“We have to prevent what happened in UP, Uttaranchal and Delhi,” party president Venkaiah Naidu said.

“In Chattisgarh and Karnataka BJP MLAs left the party to become ministers in the Congress government. Weaknesses of other parties like the Congress culture of nepotism and corruption have crept in and now plague us. This is a challenge that we have to accept and need to fight the indiscipline and greed for office,” Naidu said.

The top leaders of the BJP, meeting in New Delhi, planned to chalk out a road map for galvanizing the party ahead of assembly elections in 10 states including the key states of Jammu and Kashmir. and Gujarat.

The thrust of the BJP’s daylong convention was the ‘Delhi Pledge’ a blueprint for the party’s fight back after a series of electoral defeats.

The pledge, proposed by Advani and seconded by party General Secretary Rajnath Singh, called for honest introspection and remedial action against corrupting tendencies, to galvanize the party ahead of the assembly elections. Much of the media attention was however riveted on Advani for his remarks on the men who influenced and determined the growth of the party.

“In the first phase, it was Deen Dayal Upadhayay and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who were the most influential, in the second phase it was the influence of Jai Prakash Narain and the third phase bore the imprint of Vajpayee till 1996. Since then, in the fourth phase that has started we must ensure that not only are we a party with a difference but also a government with a difference,” said Advani, in a remark that was seen as igniting the debate about his equation with Vajpayee.

Advani was however quick to clarify that Vajpayee remained the undisputed leader of the BJP as he took the podium again. “Whether in Opposition or in Government, Prime Minister Vajpayee remains our undisputed leader. Here I missed the mark a little,” he said.

A surprise observation came from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, once an ally of the communist-backed Third Front government and now a key member of Vajpayee’s NDA alliance.

“We are progressive in our thinking. Now let us be aggressive in our action to foil the cynical politics of the Congress-Communist combine,” Naidu, a guest speaker at the meeting said.—By Jawed Naqvi

AFP adds: Advani urged BJP workers to court minorities and lower castes ahead of crucial provincial polls next year and national elections in 2004.

Advani said it was important to consolidate the party’s position among all sections of the electorate.

“You have to reach out to the minorities and the lower caste people and impress upon them that the BJP understands them and they are not vote banks,” Advani said.

“Ours is not just another party. It is a party with difference... Ours is not a party but a nationalist movement.”

The BJP’s image has been dented by violent sectarian clashes in the western state of Gujarat earlier this year, in which about 1,000 people — mostly minority Muslims — were killed.

The BJP administration in Gujarat is accused by several Indian and international human rights groups of not doing enough to stem the riots.

The national council meeting comes almost a month after Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee made sweeping changes to his cabinet and revamped his party, appointing a new president and office bearers.

Newly-appointed Finance Minister Jaswant Singh also hinted at the meeting that he would offer Indians more tax concessions.

“We will endeavour to make the taxation system people-oriented while ensuring at the same time that the rate of growth is not reduced,” said Singh. “But, as and when it is possible, the tax exemption limits will be increased.”

On Wednesday, Singh announced several tax concessions, offsetting what was widely seen as a harsh annual budget unveiled in February by his predecessor, Yashwant Sinha, who some BJP members blamed for the electoral defeats suffered by the party over the past year.