THE CHAT ROOMS
HOME

'More than anti-incumbency, organisational problems cost us badly in UP'

The results are on expected lines. The Congress approached the elections in a negative manner. Right through the election campaign, and right from Sonia Gandhi to the other leaders, they were appealing to the people not to vote for the BJP.

They never appealed to the people to vote for the Congress. People had very high regard for Vajpayeeji and they wanted him to become PM for the full five-year term. It is their negativism that has cost them the seats.

In Tamil Nadu too, we have made progress. We have won four out of six seats that we contested and lost the remaining by a narrow margin. Last time, in 1998, Jayalalitha secured 18 seats. This time she will be probably get 10 or 11 seats. So the slide is for the AIADMK and not our alliance.

Even last year, our PM called a meeting of four southern CMs and worked out a Cauvery formula that was accepted by all the four states and found an interim solution. This was welcomed by the farmers from both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

There was some problem about a fortnight ago in TN where the standing crops could not get Cauvery water. Karnataka took the stand that due to a failure of the monsoon it could not spare the water it should have supplied as per the PM's formula. Vajpayeeji was trying to find a solution and nature intervened and provided the water to Tamil Nadu. This shows he enjoys divine blessings.

I have to admit that the results from Uttar Pradesh were not to our expectations and have caused disappointment. More than the anti-incumbency factor, organisational problems cost us badly. We will be getting a report on the matter from the UP unit in 15 days.

It is not the question of few lakh voters voting for Sonia, or having conferred a natural citizenship on Sonia rather than a naturalised citizenship. The fact is that she was born in Italy, spent her youth in foreign countries, happened to marry an Indian who became PM later and even after here marriage she took 15 years of her own sweet time to become a citizen. Often it is taken that, as per Indian culture, a girl automatically comes into the family after marriage.

It should not be forgotten that our cultural traditions demand that the moment marriage takes place, in law and otherwise, the bride severs all her relations with the family of birth and becomes a part of the family of marriage. But Sonia is yet to answer the question why she took 15 years.

The government did not say at any time that it would sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. But it did say that after elections are over, the new government, consulting all parties, will try to evolve a consensus to sign the CTBT. We will keep to this commitment.