BJP to focus on winning more seats on its own

New Delhi (PTI): With the search for new "friends" apparently not yielding much result, the BJP is now focussing on winning more seats in the coming Lok Sabha polls "on its own strength".

Its PM candidate L K Advani underlined this strategy when he suggested that the party is no longer on the lookout for new allies and is targeting to increase its own tally.

"No, we have to fight on our own strength. Allies don't come for nothing, alliances happen on the basis of our own strength... The stronger we get, the more allies we fetch," Advani told cadres in Gandhinagar this weekend when a worker asked if more allies were slated to join the NDA.

The change in strategy reportedly came after a meeting between the top brass of the party and the RSS last month. The RSS leaders had then suggested allies would line-up in the post poll scenario if the party gets a "decent figure".

Else, the risk of the existing allies deserting the coalition for greener pastures looms large," party sources said. The saffron party failed to attract new allies despite projecting itself as the only formidable force which can take the nation ahead from "despair to hope".

Advani's statement comes a week after AIADMK chief Jayalalitha made overtures to the Congress for a possible alliance dashing hopes of a BJP to tie up with her party in Tamil Nadu.

The BJP has also drawn blank on getting an ally in Andhra Pradesh and has lost an important ally in West Bengal in the form of Trinamool Congress. the hindu