Lucknow — The Bharatiya Janata Party extending its support openly for the first time to Movement for Liberation of Hindu Religious Places like Ram Janma Bhoomi in Ayodhya and Krishna Janma Bhoomi in Mathura and promised to restore these disputed religious places to Hindus if it was returned to power in Uttar Pradesh.

By making the restoration of these religious places to Hindus as the main issue of electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh the Bharatiya Janata Party is attempting to prevent the fast erosion of its Hindu base and to keep it intact.

In another of its poll promises the party stated that it would adopt a clear policy with regard to Hindi and would restore it to its respectable position while giving opportunities to different languages to progress and prosper.

The party’s secretary, Mr. Kalraj Mistra, in his election broadcast from the Luck now station of the All India Radio traced the backwardness of Uttar Pradesh to the Governments at the Centre and in the state being of the same party and stated that chief ministers never raised their voice for a fair share of Uttar Pradesh in Central resources. The state had been suffering humiliation because of the appointment of subservient chief ministers by the Centre.

The party made the law and orders another issue and stated that in spite of the killing of 3947 alleged dacoits in encounters by the police during the past five years the problem of dacoits and dacoities still remained unsolved. It was at the same time also doubtful whether all those killed were dacoits or not.

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 22, 1985