NEW DELHI, Dec 18: The BJP's national executive which begins in Bhubaneswar tomorrow is mainly a confidence-building exercise on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections, aimed at inspiring party cadres to go all out for the polls with the promise that the party is poised to capture power at the Centre.

The BJP will virtually kick-off its election campaign at Bhubaneswar. Counting on the fact that the people are craving for a government that completes a full term and delivers the goods, the party plans to appeal for a clear mandate so that it can fulfill its promise of stability and good governance.

The BJP's tie-up with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and the probable alliance with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa on the eve of the executive are expected to give the meeting a tremendous boost; and these pacts are to be cited as positive proof that the BJP is no longer dogged by the ``political untouchability'' factor. The BJP-BJD electoral alliance is also likely to be announced during the meeting.

The BJP is eyeing several other regional parties for pre-election understandings. Party vice-president K L Sharma indicated that the NTR-TDP headed by Lakshmi Parvathi in Andhra Pradesh, the parties led by Ram Krishna Hegde and S Bangarappa in Karnataka and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress in West Bengal could ally themselves with the BJP. All this is to be discussed at the national executive. Although the party's focus at present is to forge pre-poll alliances so that a public commitment binds them together, it is also optimistic that if it does not get a majority in the general elections, it can get the support of parties that did not contest the polls with them.pThe three-day executive will concentrate on poll strategies, with party president L K Advani's opening address setting the tone. Unlike other executives, there will only be a political resolution and no economic or international relations resolutions.

A call is to be issued to the people to give the BJP a clear mandate. According to BJP leaders, the party has never had such an initial advantage in any previous poll.

They point out that for the first time, the Congress is shying away from projecting a prime ministerial candidate. As for the UF, the BJP is making capital of the fact that it is not projecting its own sitting prime minister. The BJP, on the other hand, is promoting Atal Behari Vajpayee; its main slogan is to be: ``Stable government, able prime minister''.

Although this appeal is not new, the party hopes that the message will be more forceful because of the experience of the past 18 months which saw three prime ministers (one of whom was Vajpayee) and a see-saw battle between the UF and Congress.

The party's political resolution, said a BJP insider, would go beyond criticism of the UF and Congress and tell the people in more concrete terms what programmes the party would take up. Besides reviewing the state-wise position and progress on realignment of political forces, the executive will also appoint poll-related panels.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.