Ready for compromises: Vajpayee
From a Special Correspondent in Bhubaneswar
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Atal Bihari Vajpayee said his party is ready to present a common minimum programme to woo potential allies and from a stable government.
Addressing the media at the end of the three-day national executive meeting on Sunday, Vajpayee said his party was ready to compromise on issues like the Ayodhya temple to pre-empt a 1996-like situation -- when his government at the Centre lasted just 13 days.
This would help the party ''break into new geographical areas and remove previous mental barriers''.
Vajpayee has send that his party is in favour of a national debate on Article 370 (which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir) and Ayodhya.
Though he was at a loss in justifying the alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham -- the BJP has been going hammer and tongs at former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav after his chargesheet in the Rs 9.5 billion fodder scam -- Vajpayee finally said,
''I don't justify everything that has been done.''
In his failed attempt to exonerate former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha, Vajpayee conceded that the prime motive of the alliance is to strengthen his party in that region.
As for the Uttar Pradesh jumbo cabinet, Vajpayee said his party had played by the rules for almost 40 years. ''Now he has no alternative but to play the game as it is being played by the other parties.''
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