‘People looking beyond UPA Govt’

Citing the BJP's 'spectacular success' in Gujarat polls under Narendra Modi, the party's prime ministerial candidate LK Advani on Friday said the NDA would attempt to ride back to power at the Centre in the next parliamentary elections on the mantra of good governance, development and security.

Describing the UPA government as 'internally' paralysed, he said people were 'already looking beyond' this government and the NDA led by his party has been 'preparing for the future in right earnest'. The Leader of Opposition was speaking to business leaders at the annual general meeting of FICCI where his address sounded more like an election speech.

"People are hungry for a change, but they are not looking only for a change in government with some new faces replacing old ones … They want to see a big change in the way government functions at all levels," he stated, .if his party-led alliance won in the elections, it would make good governance, development and security the basis of their common minimum programme, he said.

Advani also told the industry leaders that his party had 'consistently followed a policy of supporting private enterprise' and voicing opposition to licence quota control regime even in the years when there was hardly any debate on economic reforms.

He also sought to dispel the notion of BJP being a prisoner of swadeshi ideology saying that their concept of swadeshi was not dogmatic. "We are not slave to any dogma, either of the Left or right variety," the leader asserted.

In the event of the NDA coming to power, he assured all support to the manufacturing sector, modernisation of airports and railways and accelerating the reforms process.