AHMEDABAD, June 8: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, L K Advani, today said reservation for minorities was not in the interests of the country.

Talking to newspersons at the end of the four-day Swaran Jayanti Rath Yatra in Gujarat, Advani challenged the political parties who advocate reservation for minorities to include it in their election manifesto and go for a national referendum. The BJP was opposed to reservation for minorities, he said.

He said the issue of reservation for minorities was being raked up to scuttle the issue of reservation for women.

He said the country should be ready for the mid-term poll in view of the ``inborn instability''in the United Front government. He said he outcome of the fodder scam would decide the future of the Laloo Prasad Yadav government in Bihar. He said the organisational election in the Janata Dal would have a bearing on the United Front government because the Janata Dal was its main constituent. Advani said the parliamentary board of BJP would meet at Bhopal on June 12 to decide its strategy for the coming presidential election. He said leaders like T N Seshan, Ram Jethmalani, Dr Karan Singh, Prof Balraj Madhok, Sumitra Kulkarni have so far approached BJP for its support for their candidature in the presidential election. He said BJP would not oppose if all political parties reached an understanding for a consensus candidate. He said the organisational election of BJP at the state level would be over by September followed by the national level election in October. The Akhil Bharatiya convention of the party will be held in November. Inspite of the installation of an elected government in Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre had not yet made any headway in the rehabilitation of refugees.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.