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If BJP loses it would be by hit-wicket: Advani

Despite the good showing of the Congress in various states, the Bharatiya Janata Party will return to power in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, he said in an interview to the Press Trust of India.

"I would have felt that way [uneasy] if the Congress had been able to score well in the Uttar Pradesh elections," he said.

"Even if we get a majority, we propose to see that our alliance partners continue to be in the government," he said.

Advani said the BJP had emerged as a stabilising factor at the Centre. However, the country's problems were so complex that no single party could solve them, he said, adding there was a need for political consensus on major issues.

The BJP leader said, "If there is concern in our circles, it is about the problems within the party, and in several of my speeches to my partymen I have said that we are batting at the moment and no bowler can get us out. If we lose it would be by hit-wicket."

The deputy prime minister said an advantage for the BJP was that the Congress had been ruling in a large number states for a long period of time.

He virtually dismissed the Third Front, saying it was merely a group of parties uncomfortable with both the BJP and the Congress.

He said in the present bipolar polity, BJP was seen as a natural ally for regional parties.

Citing examples, Advani said in Punjab, the Akali Dal was against the Congress and in Andhra Pradesh it was Telugu Desam Party versus the Congress; these parties did not want the Congress at the Centre.

On the upcoming assembly election in Gujarat, Advani said the party will get a renewed mandate with a comfortable majority.

Asked about dissidence in the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP, Advani admitted that it had affected the image of the party but said crisis facing the Mayawati government would blow over.

He lamented that personal ambition had overtaken some of the partymen, who were "social climbers" in a party that viewed politics with a sense of mission.

"These political climbers like some MPs and MLAs want to become ministers saying they will serve the nation. But this will not fulfil the BJP's dreams. Politics in this country is not a profession like in many others," Advani said.

He said in India politicians wielded much greater clout than in any other country, which made it all the more imperative for parties and politicians to behave better.

Asked about his hardliner image, he said it was because he wanted the country to respond to terrorism in a firm manner. "Those who know me will not use such epithets."

On reports of his difference with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he said, "Sometimes it amuses and sometimes it distresses. But it makes a good copy [for journalists]."

"Journalists who know us well do not write such things," he said.

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