Sunday, January 2 2005 20:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Panipat: Kicking off the election campaign in Haryana, BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) President L K Advani today (Jan 2, 2005) asked the voters here to "make a new beginning" in the State and provide a chance to the party to bring a change there.

"You have seen other parties but we have not got any opportunity. Give us a chance and I assure that we will not disappoint you. We are a party whom you can rely on," he said reaching out to the voters at Circus ground in Panipat.

Lauding the party's governance at the Centre, he said in the five years rule, "we have changed the national politics, created a name of India in the world and now given a chance, we will show how to change the State."

However, he refrained from any direct attack on the ruling INLD (Indian National Lok Dal) and State's Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala.

Claiming that BJP never "compromised on nationality and nationalism", the former Deputy Prime Minister dismissed Opposition's charge that BJP was an anti-farmer party.

He said "some 2000 farmers have committed suicide" after the Congress Government came to power in Andhra Pradesh.

"I went there five months after the formation of the new Government. I got the details from my party that in five months, 1600 farmers had committed suicide and the figure has reached 2000 now. It is strange when people say we are anti-farmers," he said.

He exemplified the recent Kanchi Seer issue and the tsunami disaster where BJP "played both the part of a vigilant Opposition and a national party."

Justifying the opposition to the arrest of Kanchi Seer, he said, "I was surprised the way Kanchi Shankaracharya was arrested. Yes, we always believe that the law should take its own course but the treatment meted out to him was not at par with the high position he occupies."