New Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh on Monday identified four priority areas, including intensifying its agitation against the "anti-people" policies of the United Progressive Alliance government and further strengthening the National Democratic Alliance.
Addressing a press conference immediately after taking over the top party post from L K Advani, he said his other main tasks would be to maintain the clean image of the party and carry out its extensive expansion.
Lashing out at the UPA government, he said during the last 20 months of its rule, problems have cropped up all around.
"Farmers are not getting a good deal from the present government, internal security situation has deteriorated and prices of petrol, diesel and Liquified Petroleum Gas have gone up while the public distribution system has collapsed," he said.
Ridiculing the Congress slogan "Congress ke hath, aam admi ke saath" (Congress' hand is for the common people)", Singh said it has turned out to be "Congress ke haath, aam admi par aghat (Congress hand is harming the common people)".
The newly elected party chief said that his focus would be on "Bharat Mata, Janata and Annadata," that is, farmers and workers.
Observing that decency was getting eroded in democracy, he said many problems cropped up because of this and added that he would make efforts to restore the lost decency.
Singh announced that the party would not tolerate indisicipline and ruled out the return of Uma Bharti into the party fold under his leadership. "This issue was decided by the Parliamentary board and I have nothing to say on the matter," he said.
He parried many ticklish questions by taking shelter behind the fact that he had only just taken over and he would hold deliberations with his party leaders and revert back to the media at a later stage.
"As far as the office bearers of the party are concerned, I have not been able to apply my mind to it and we would take atleast 10 days before making announcement of the new team," he said. He was flanked by former president of the party M Venkaiah Naidu, Pramod Mahajan and Anant Kumar during the press conference.
Rajnath Singh rejected the plea that while the party wants votes of the dalits and the backward classes, it has not been treating leaders like Kalyan Singh and erstwhile chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Uma Bharti well.
"I don't know where you get that perception. BJP does not believe in caste and class politics," he said.
With PTI inputs
