BJP culture 'meritocracy' :Jaitely

Terming the BJP culture as one of "meritocracy", senior party leader Arun Jaitley on Wednesday criticised the Congress, saying its culture of leadership was based on "who the Gandhi family was comfortable with."

"While we have tried consciously to cultivate a culture of meritocracy where most people have risen up on sheer merit, the Congress has made the historical mistake of reducing itself to a crowd around the family. Any leadership decision taken depends on who the family is comfortable with," Jaitley told reporters here.

Coming down heavily on the Congress for having "no gameplan" he said his party was confident of making significant inroads into north eastern states like Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and also Karnataka, which he said could "turn out to be the gateway to the South" for the BJP.

Parrying questions on whether he would remain within the organisational structure of the BJP even after elections were over, Jaitley said speculation that he would join the NDA government if it got power were unfounded and he would "work wherever the party wished him to work."

Dwelling on the campaign strategy of the BJP, Jaitley, who is one of the main campaign strategists, said it would concentrate on Vajpayee's leadership and also the economic resurgence that India had witnessed during the NDA rule.

"We have converted the Indian economy from one of shortage to an economy of surplus. We have the highest growth rates in the world and are confident of maintaining a sustainable growth rate throughout," he said.