Advani, Rajnath to begin Rath Yatras
by Ruchi Gupta

      New Delhi: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K.Advani here today left for Ahmedabad to begin 'Bharat Suraksha Yatra' (National Security March) from Dwarka tomorrow. Earlier in the day, party President Rajnath Singh left Delhi to start off yatra from Jagannath temple in Puri. His yatra covers a distance of 5,500 kilometres through Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. Advani's yatra will cover a distance of 6,000 kilometres, crisscrossing the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana and culminate in Delhi. Advani and Rajnath Singh here today had also met former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to seek his blessings ahead. The decision to take out the march was announced by Advani, in the wake of the twin bomb blasts in northern pilgrim town of Varanasi last month, which killed 15 people and wounded dozens.

    The BJP, which has been struggling for direction since losing national elections in May 2004, is trying to pitch itself as the defender of national security and the poor. But unlike Advani's earlier marches in 1990, 1997 or 2004, there is not much enthusiasm in the party cadres about the latest march. A section of the party feels, he should have in fact concentrated on campaigning for its candidates for the provincial assembly polls in five states. Analysts feel, Advani who had resigned last year from the Presidentship of BJP after a cold war with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its parent ideologue over his increasing secular tilt, is expecting to reclaim his popularity amongst the party cadres.

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