South no longer Congress' pocket borough: Advani

HUBLI, Mar 15 (UNI) Deputy prime minister LK Advani today asserted that the South was no longer a 'pocket boroug' of the Congress.

Continuing his Congress-bashing at the beginning of the sixth day of his Bharat Uday Yatra, Advani told newspersons here that the Congress' claim of being a national party now "rests on the delusion that large number of people in the Southern states will vote for it as a matter of habit." However, he said, judging by the response to his yatra in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he believed that the Congress could no longer treat the Southern states as a 'pocket borough' and win votes on its 'ability to expolit poverty and backwardness'.

He said the 2004 elections would be a turning point in the country, as the soaring popularity of prime minsier AB Vajpayee would translate into an unequivocal mandate for the BJP and its allies in the Southern states.

Stating that he was determined to ensure that the BJP wrested power in Karnataka from the Congress in the Assembly elections, Advani said the Congress lacked application in solving the serious water shortage and drought facing the state.

"This is a problemn the NDA government is determined to tackle on a war-footing in the next five years.

We will ensure that Vajpayee's second dream project of inter-linking Indian rivers becomes a reality." Observing that the role of the Southern states in India's resurgence had been considerable, he said there was healthy competition among the states to reap the benefits of development.

"Yet, there is a need to address the `serious problems' of governance," he added.

The core problem of the Congress, according to Advani, is that good governance has disappeared from its culture.

"It is inherently unsuited to the task of providing India a wholesome environment for channelling its energies and is unsuited for governance." The party was virtually non-existent in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, he claimed.

Referring to his Bharat Uday Yatra, Advani said during the five days of his travel through Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he witnessed an 'outpouring' of faith in India's ability to fight poverty and backwardness and emerge as a developed economy and a world power by 2020.

"The visible mood of optimism, which I refer to as the `feel-good' factor, owes a great deal to the achievements of the Vajpayee-led NDA government in the last six years," he said.

The deputy prime minister said that unlike in the past when claims made by incumbent governments were viewed with cynicism and disbelief , now 'enormous hope' was being reposed in the Vajpayee government.

The yatra had been greeted with enthusiasm precisely because the NDA government and the BJP now had a 'proven track record'.

"We have shown that with good governance the people of India can get to the top.

Earlier, there were achievements of Indians today India as a nation is scripting a success story," he added.