New Delhi: The three-day national executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scheduled to begin in Lucknow tomorrow (Dec 22, 2006) is likely to be dominated by the upcoming assembly polls in Uttaranchal, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

 
"Party strategists will chalk out the election strategy and identify the poll issues for the assembly polls in Uttaranchal, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh," a senior party leader said. The assembly polls are likely to take place early next year.

"One of the crucial issues to be discussed in this regard is whether the BJP will be projecting its candidate for chief ministers during campaigning in Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh as there is still no consensus within the party on this issue," a senior BJP leader said.

In Punjab, the BJP would be contesting polls as a junior coalition partner with Akali Dal, which is likely to project former chief minister Prakash Singh Badal as chief ministerial candidate.

According to BJP sources, a large part of the sessions on poll strategy would focus primarily on the party's strategy in Uttar Pradesh where it is making yet another desperate bid to regain its lost ground.

"While the party is confident of making a comeback in Uttaranchal and Punjab, in Uttar Pradesh it will try to emerge as the single largest party," a senior BJP leader said.

"The results of the recently held civic polls in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP won in most of the major cities have provided hope for a comeback in the state, where the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party were considered to be frontrunners with BJP only a distant third," he added.

"To boost the morale of party cadres, the BJP would be kicking off its election campaign much ahead of its rivals in the state by holding a political rally, touted as a show of strength," he said.

The rally would be addressed by the top BJP leadership, including its chief Rajnath Singh, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and senior BJP leader L.K. Advani.

In addition to the poll strategy, the party national executive is likely to discuss the implications of the Rajinder Sachar committee's report on minorities and the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. The party is also expected to take up the issue of delay in the hanging of 2001 parliament attack accused Mohammed Afzal.