Advani,
Rajnath to begin Rath Yatras
by Ruchi Gupta
New
Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K.Advani
here today left for Ahmedabad to begin 'Bharat Suraksha
Yatra' (National Security March) from Dwarka tomorrow. Earlier
in the day, party President Rajnath Singh left Delhi to
start off yatra from Jagannath temple in Puri. His yatra
covers a distance of 5,500 kilometres through Orissa, Chattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh,
Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.
Advani's yatra will cover a distance of 6,000 kilometres,
crisscrossing the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka,
Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana and culminate in Delhi. Advani
and Rajnath Singh here today had also met former Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee to seek his blessings ahead. The decision
to take out the march was announced by Advani, in the wake
of the twin bomb blasts in northern pilgrim town of Varanasi
last month, which killed 15 people and wounded dozens.
The BJP, which has been struggling for direction since losing
national elections in May 2004, is trying to pitch itself
as the defender of national security and the poor. But unlike
Advani's earlier marches in 1990, 1997 or 2004, there is
not much enthusiasm in the party cadres about the latest
march. A section of the party feels, he should have in fact
concentrated on campaigning for its candidates for the provincial
assembly polls in five states. Analysts feel, Advani who
had resigned last year from the Presidentship of BJP after
a cold war with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its
parent ideologue over his increasing secular tilt, is expecting
to reclaim his popularity amongst the party cadres.
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