BJP asks PM: What are you proud of? Corruption, price rise?

Keeping the possibility of early general elections in mind, the Bharatiya Janata Party has drawn up an aggressive campaign strategy with a special focus on southern states, and "development and good governance" as its agenda, senior party leader Venkaiah Naidu said on Saturday.

"There is a possibility of an early election because the Congress is losing day-by-day, whatever the prime minister may say. People are waiting for the earliest opportunity to throw this government out fully. There is a thinking in Delhi that why should we wait till April? Let us cut down on the losses and combine the Lok Sabha and the assembly elections in November. This discussion is going on at the Centre," Naidu told reporters.

"Hence, we are gearing up our state units to be prepared with contingency plans. If polls are held in November, we will have 100 days and if they are held in April, we will have 200 days. We will organise rallies across the country, we have already identified the places. Narendra Modi will conduct a whirlwind tour while other top leaders like L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Murali Manohar Joshi and Arun Jaitley will also address these rallies," said Naidu, the head of BJP's 'mass campaign programme'.

BJP would organise 'sammelans' in 542 Lok Sabha constituencies, he said, adding, "We will mobilise the intelligentsia for campaign while 'Friends of BJP' and 'Overseas Friends of BJP' will also be involved”.

"Our aim is to pass on the message about the challenges before the country and spread the BJP's agenda of development and good governance," the Rajya Sabha member added.

"The irony is, India is developing but people are not getting the fruits of development. The prime minister claimed that only one particular year was bad but the situation has been bad ever since he took over. The Congress is running away from this but we will not let it go scot-free," Naidu said.

He also questioned the prime minister's remarks on Friday -- that the UPA government had an "overall track record to be proud of".

"Is it the massive and unprecedented scale of corruption, price rise, depreciation of the rupee, dismal economic growth rate of just five per cent, mounting revenue deficit, huge gap in current account deficit, growing terror strikes and Maoist attacks, uncontrolled inflation, what is there to be proud of? UPA government's has been not only a dismal performance but also a betrayal of the promises made to the people," he added.