PM to start BJP campaign Tuesday

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will start the Bharatiya Janata Party's election campaign in five states with a rally in Rajasthan on Tuesday.

Vajpayee, who returned from a three-nation tour Sunday night, discussed the party's poll preparations at a meeting on Monday.

BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu, and Union ministers Jaswant Singh and Ravi Shanker Prasad, who is in charge of Rajasthan, were among those who attended the meeting.

After the 90-minute meeting, Naidu said the leaders gave feedbacks to the PM and expressed confidence about the party's success in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

He said most of the rebel candidates had withdrawn their nominations and reiterated their support to the party.

Naidu said besides focus on the "failure" of the four Congress-ruled states, the BJP campaign would veer around "good governance and development" under the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.