'Modi for PM': BJP's slogan for Lok Sabha polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday decided to firmly peg its Lok Sabha campaign on the party's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, while taking the message to the people that the conditions prevailing now were akin to those witnessed immediately after the Emergency imposed by the Congress in 1975.

Following a meeting of chief ministers of five BJP-ruled states and its parliamentary board in New Delhi, General Secretary Ananth Kumar told reporters that the election slogan for the party would be 'Modi for PM'.

"BJP's Modi-for-PM campaign will be on the lines of the JP movement that was launched in the Emergency era to throw out the Congress government," Kumar said.

Maintaining that in 1977, the mood had been strongly anti- Congress, Kumar averred that a similar situation exists today. "It was a watershed year. Nobody thought the opposition could garner so many votes," Kumar said.

The recent assembly election results show that the BJP is head and shoulders above its rivals, Kumar claimed. He also revealed that as part of their ambitious campaign, BJP workers will also collect funds under a 'one

vote, one note' programme.

"The minimum amount to be contributed will be Rs 10 while the maximum limit is Rs 1,000," Kumar said.

During the meeting, BJP President Rajnath Singh claimed that wins in three states and a good performance in Delhi in the recent assembly polls had set the momentum in favour of the party and would help it in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The leaders passed a resolution stating that these results were a referendum that a government has to perform or perish. The party has only one target -- of getting 272-plus seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

Image: A BJP supporter holds a poster of Narendra Modi