Opposition leader Shri L.K. Advani after describing the enormous psychological impact of Karnataka victory on the party workers, pointed out finger towards the ruling UPA for its continuous failures in respective elections. He said: ?The Congress party'sbeing in power at the Centre for four years has not helped it even one bit in any of the states. Is this not a severe indictment of the party'scentral leadership? Is this also not a proof of the total and irrefutable failure of the UPA government? Doesn'tit show that neither the Congress party'sdynastic leadership nor the track record of the Prime Minister and his team inspire any confidence among the people of India? All except the sycophants of the ?Dynasty? can see this reality.?
Attacking Dr Manmohan Singh for his bleak performance and for losing control over the council of ministers, Shri Advani said: ?The Prime Minister never had any control either over his council of ministers or over the larger administrative set-up. Now his government presents the picture of an entity that is paralysed, unable to take any right decision, every minister acting more or less independently, and many ministers acting in a manner that has converted governance into pure commerce.? The character of the UPA government can also be judged by its attempt to undo the greatest achievement of the Vajpayee government in the area of national security?namely, making India a nuclear weapons state by conducting nuclear tests in May 1998. Clearly bending under foreign pressure, UPA leadership did not even deem it necessary to observe the 10th anniversary of Pokharan-II. On the contrary, its spokesperson had the temerity to state publicly that there was no need for celebration since sanctions were imposed on India as a consequence of the NDA government'saction. When such is the warped mindset of the government, it is hardly surprising that it has sought to disarm India of its strategic defence capability through the flawed Indo-US nuclear deal, he said.
Shri Advani accused the UPA of stalling the development of the nation and questioned its motive and asked: ?Can India be safe; can India progress and can India ever become strong if we have a paralysed government led by a visionless party, headed by a powerless Prime Minister, and supported by a bunch of opportunists whose faith in democracy itself is suspect??
The prime ministerial candidate of the NDA applauded party chief Shri Rajnath Singh for his assessment of the party after the Karnataka elections and said: ?Shri Rajnath Singh rightly observed, after the results of the Karnataka elections were known, that the BJP and the NDA are ?frontrunners? in the next parliamentary elections. However, being a ?frontrunner? is not enough. The challenge before our party and our alliance is to transform the reality from being a ?frontrunner? into being seen as a ?clear winner?.? He added that once the BJP is seen as a ?clear winner?, it is bound to have a positive effect on the size and strength of the NDA. ?We can expect?in fact we are confident?that more parties will join our alliance,? Shri Advani stated.
Suggesting the task ahead of the party Shri Advani said: ?Another important task before us is the need to intensify mass-contact programmes, in which it should be our endeavour to reach out to every section of society, including those, such as Muslims and Christians, who have so far remained aloof from the BJP. We should emphasise that our party seeks the all-round development and participation of minorities in a non-divisive and integrative agenda without recourse to appeasement or religion-based reservations,? he added.
