The Hindu : Media reports on BJP rallies wrong, says PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 09, 2002

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Media reports on BJP rallies wrong, says PM

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, being greeted by Muslims at the Id Milan party hosted at his residence in New Delhi on Sunday. The Civil Aviation Minister, Shah Nawaz Hussain, is at left. — Photo: V. V. Krishnan

New Delhi, Dec. 8. Confident of his party's prospects in the fast approaching elections in Gujarat, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, said today the media was presenting a distorted picture by saying that the rallies of the Bharatiya Janata Party were not drawing crowds.

Informally interacting with mediapersons at the Id Milan he hosted here this evening, he said ``we will win'' the Gujarat elections. The media reports of ``thin attendance'' at BJP rallies in Gujarat were wrong, he said.

Playing the perfect host at the Id Milan, Mr. Vajpayee was at hand well in advance of the designated hour to receive his guests.

Arguably the first Id Milan to be hosted by any Prime Minister — the `iftar' parties being the more politically acceptable thing to do — the evening was eclipsed by the electioneering in Gujarat what with the negligible presence of political personalities. The guest list comprised a number of Muslim clerics and community leaders besides members of the diplomatic corps. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and the Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, dropped in and the former interacted with the guests in his characteristic style. Prominent among those who attended the Id Milan were the former President, K.R. Narayanan, the former Prime Ministers, P. V. Narasimha Rao and Chandra Shekhar, the Cabinet Ministers, Yashwant Sinha and Shahnawaz Hussain, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, K. C. Pant, and the National Conference president, Omar Abdullah.

If the Government was thinly represented, more so was the case with the Opposition. Such being the case, the glamour element was provided by the token Bollywood presence of Shabana Azmi and Nafisa Ali.

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