Different tunes

New Delhi/Dehradun: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s surprise absence at an event marking Vande Mataram centenary on Thursday supplied new ammunition to the BJP to attack the ruling party as it announced plans to step up its campaign on the national song ahead of Assembly polls in several states

At its office bearers meeting, the saffron party decided to form a special panel to work out its Vande Mataram strategy in the light of Sonia skipping a Congress event commemorating the centenary of the adoption of the national song.

Party leaders Arun Jaitely, M Venkaiah Naidu, Sanjay Joshi and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will be part of a special committee on the BJP’s Vande Mataram campaign, a source said.  “The BJP is sure to benefit from Sonia’s moves as it tries to rework its nationalist agenda,” a party leader said.

The office bearers’ meeting hours before the start of the National Executive also focussed on the BJP’s election plans especially for Uttar Pradesh, where the party has promised to mandate Vande Mataram if voted to power there.

Emerging out of the meeting, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi and M Venkaiah Nadu slammed the Congress president for not participating in the group singing of Vande Mataram at her party office in Delhi.

Naidu insisted that Sonia’s absence during the singing of the national song was an instance of vote-bank politics. 

Strongly defending Sonia, general secretary Ahmad Patel said “It is not a big issue if somebody does not attend the function due to being unwell or for some other reasons.”

Another general secretary B K Hari Prasad said it was a purely Seva Dal function and Sonia was not expected to attend it.

BJP leaders on their way to Dehradun sang the Vande Mataram on board the Shatabdi Express. 

The four BJP men, Gopinathnath Munde, Nitin Gadkari, Kirit Somaya and Sripad Naik rose from their seats somewhere between Saharanpur and Hardwar and requested surprised passengers to sing along with them.

In response, all passengers rose to sing the national song.