Odishatv Bureau
Guwahati: BJP chief Nitin Gadkari on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the UPA government, accusing it of rampant corruption and pledged to work hard to come to power in the 2014 general elections.

"Congress under UPA-II presides over an empire of corruption, which constitutes about three per cent of the GDP," BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad told journalists quoting Gadkari`s inaugural speech.

The inaugural session of the two-day national executive committee meeting was held behind closed doors at a city hotel with about 300 national BJP leaders taking part.

"The victory in Bihar has stirred and inspired the party workers around the country and there is a wide-held belief now that in 2014 the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) under the leadership of BJP would form the government," Gadkari was quoted as saying this, by Prasad.

"Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Pondicherry are going to polls this year. BJP has taken a very serious view of the elections and is going all out in winning the polls," Prasad said.

Referring to the North East, he said the region figured prominently in the BJP president`s speech, which said there was a "commonwealth" of corruption in the region with Congress leaders from it trying to compete with their counterparts in New Delhi.

"Why is Congress trying to run away from the Joint Parliamentary Committee probe? There is definitely something to hide," Gadkari said referring to the 2G spectrum scam.

He said wrong policies and bad governance were the reasons behind corruption and price rise and charged the UPA government with maintaining double standards in dealing with terrorism.

He also expressed concern over the Maoist problem and infiltration from Bangladesh.

The speech also mentioned the building of a Ram temple at Ayodhya.

"Country first, party thereafter and myself thereafter," Gadkari said.

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