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NATION,
BJP
The PM's point
man
By
picking Bangaru Laxman, Vajpayee has tightened his grip on the BJP but
the new party chief has the daunting task of enforcing discipline
By
Farzand Ahmed
The
day Bangaru Laxman's name was announced as successor to BJP President
Kushabhau Thakre, party Vice-President K. Jana Krishnamurti, hitherto
one of the front-runners in the race for the post, turned philosophical.
In the BJP, he said, "everything moves like a wheel ... things which once
appeared at the top come to the bottom or vice versa without anybody having
felt anything". But last week when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
aided by Union HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, turned the wheel, party
members felt the jerk. Said a party leader: "Strange are the ways of our
senior leaders who can turn a dark horse into a bright star at the bat
of an eyelid."
To
ensure there were no murmurs of protest against his new-found star, Vajpayee
reached the party headquarters on Delhi's Ashoka Road 15 minutes ahead
of the scheduled filing of nomination papers and was the first to proffer
the papers proposing Laxman's name. Besides Joshi, senior leaders including
Home Minister L.K. Advani, Thakre and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod
Mahajan tamely followed Vajpayee.
Laxman's selection is yet another example of Vajpayee's tightening grip
on both the NDA Government, which he heads, and the BJP of which he was
the founder-president. He has turned the wheel for the second time in
the past one month -- when BJP leaders wanted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Ram Prakash Gupta to go, it was he who put his foot down and asked Gupta
to continue.
Laxman's nomination is being considered a turning point in the history
of the BJP. He will not only preside over a party dominated by geriatric
leaders but will be the first Dalit president of the party which till
recently was dubbed a "manuvadi" and "Brahminical" outfit. Moreover, he
will also be the first south Indian to head India's largest political
party which is threatening to crumble under its own weight in the Hindi
belt.
"I am here to strengthen the coordination between the party and the government
as well as to strengthen and expand its geo-social base," a jubilant 61-year-old
Laxman declared amid celebrations. Surrounded by a galaxy of senior leaders,
Laxman, a BJP leader from Andhra Pradesh and an ardent swayamsevak since
his childhood, added, "I cannot tolerate indiscipline and will try my
best to free the party cadre from power-oriented politics."
The new chief has his task cut out. Laxman inherits an organisation in
a shambles. Under Thakre not only did the party headquarters cease to
function, and depend heavily on Vajpayee and Advani, in most of the states
-- including crucial ones like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan
and Delhi -- it is in a total mess. Even in southern states where the
party is slowly growing roots, infighting has broken out.
Incidently,
in the past two years the BJP has faced two Lok Sabha elections but seat-wise
its growth has been retarded. Laxman admits this and says, "My efforts
will be to help the BJP reach the 300-mark in the Lok Sabha in the next
elections so that the party is able to come to power on its own."
To
be sure, the soft-spoken Laxman has no base to speak of. A lawyer by training
and a trade unionist by profession, Laxman does not have any mass following.
Despite this he has always wanted to be a giant killer. After he unsuccessfully
contested elections against political giants like the then prime minister
P.V. Narasimha Rao from Nandyal in 1992 and Buta Singh in Jalore (Rajasthan)
during the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, Laxman finally found a seat in the Rajya
Sabha from Gujarat.
He also has Thakre's approval: "Don't think his being a Dalit alone went
in his favour. He is a seasoned and widely travelled leader and under
his leadership the party will grow more both geographically and socially."
Perhaps
Laxman is just what the doctor ordered for the BJP. The party is facing
a peculiar problem -- a problem of growth. In the past 20 years its base
has expanded greatly. This in turn has resulted in conflict between the
mass leaders and the organisational men, between those who have attained
power and those who have remained faceless. Laxman agrees: "Growth is
one of the problems. Workers want many things but they do not realise
that their dream can be realised only when the party becomes self-sufficient
politically." After Laxman takes over as the party chief on August 27
at the National Council meeting in Nagpur, ending party indiscipline will
be on top of his agenda.
Another party affliction is the growing frustration among the mass leaders
who, rightly or wrongly, feel sidelined. Former Delhi chief minister M.L.
Khurana's discontent provides the best example. When Khurana felt that
he was being ignored by the party brass he threatened to move a motion
against the government on issues of public interest. Thakre removed him
from the post of vice-president. In retaliation Khurana has formed a non-political
organisation to highlight the problems of the capital.
Khurana
is not the only senior leader to embarrass the party. Last week Sangh
Priya Gautam, one of the general secretaries, declared in the Rajya Sabha
that the economic policy being pursued by the Government was "bakwas"
(nonsense) and "anti-poor".
Similarly, Madhya Pradesh -- the original Jan Sangh stronghold -- witnessed
bitter infighting between a faction led by party veteran Sunderlal Patwa
and another headed by Lakhiram Agrawal, incharge of state party affairs
during organisational elections. In Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, another traditional
stronghold of the party, BJP workers smashed framed pictures of Vajpayee
and Advani to protest "irregularities" in the party elections.
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BANGARU
WHO?
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»Bangaru
Laxman, 61, is the first Dalit leader to head the party. Also the
first party president from the south.
Lawyer by education and trade unionist by profession, he started attending
shakhas at the age of 12.
»Headed
the All India BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha for seven years and later
became national vice-president of the BJP. Has no constituency of
his own.
»Laxman
has command over several languages, speaks Hindi fluently and accompanied
L.K. Advani during his cross-country rathyatra before the 1998 elections.
»He
is Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat and is Union Minister of State
for Railways. |
The
conflict between aspirations of power and compulsions of party politics
has forced some central leaders or Union ministers with roots in the shakhas
to fight for supremacy in their native states. In the deep south in Kerala,
where the party is yet to have an MLA, Union Minister of State for Parliamentary
Affairs O. Rajagopal was engaged in a war of supremacy with C.K. Padmanabhan
which has left the party completely divided. Finally, Padmanabhan, backed
by the RSS, was elected through "consensus". In Karnataka, two Central
ministers -- Dhananjaya Kumar, a "Vajpayee boy", and Ananth Kumar, an
"Advani bhakta" -- are engaged in a hit-and-run battle.
Party
spokesperson M. Venkaiah Naidu attributes such acrimony to the phenomenal
growth of the organisation -- from a membership of 15 lakh at the time
of its birth in 1980 to two crore now. During this period, he says, the
party's support base has expanded territorially, socially and politically.
"We are not simply a cadre-based party but over the years the BJP has
become a mass-based party," he says.
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The
BJP which prided itself on being a "party with a difference" is
witnessing acrimonious infighting in several states. A round-up
of conflicts.
Vikram
Verma,
Madhya Pradesh: Verma became state party chief in a bitterly
contested election which has left deep scars in the party apparatus.
His candidature was opposed by state supremo Sunderlal Patwa whose
faction alleged that Verma was backed by Kushabhau Thakre.
Bhanwar
Lal Sharma, Rajasthan: The BJP high command brought the
68-year-old Sharma from oblivion to head the state unit after fighting
broke out between Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and national Vice-President
Ram Das Agrawal over control of the state BJP.
Asim
Ghosh, West Bengal: Infighting in Bengal was the creation
of the central leadership. When state BJP President Tapan Sikdar
resigned, the party foisted Sikdar's man Asim Ghosh instead of appointing
Vice-President Paras Dutta. This resulted in a contest in which
Ghosh was elected.
Basavaraj
Patil, Karnataka: The state has witnessed a ding-dong
battle between the Kumars, Dhananjaya and Ananth, both Union ministers
who are trying to establish their supremacy in the state unit. A
showdown was avoided at the last moment and Ananth's man Patil was
made party chief.
Mange
Ram Garg, Delhi: Despite having all seven Lok Sabha seats
in its kitty, the Delhi Pradesh BJP is in disarray. Garg's re-election
as party president was opposed by many party stalwarts and the party
office was vandalised by its own workers who alleged that there
were irregularities.
Pandurang
B. Phunkar, Maharashtra: Maharashtra is a zone of peace
but the BJP has foisted the virtually faceless Phunkar as the state
unit chief. The 50-year-old Phunkar has been an MP twice but apart
from his role as president of the cotton growers' federation, there
is little that is known about him.
Om
Prakash Singh, Uttar Pradesh: As a successor to the no-nonsense
Rajnath Singh, this Kurmi leader who also continues to be a state
minister, has been helplessly watching the collapse of the BJP in
its most crucial state. Singh is likely to face a contest in the
long-delayed organisational elections.
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But
Maharashtra state unit chief Pandurang Bhansaheb Phunkar fears that the
"rapid quantitative" growth of the party could result in "qualitative
deterioration". The BJP should have a "quality control department", he
says pointing out that "we must learn from the experience of the Congress
that after acquiring power a party organisation weakens".
The
question of "quality control" is already posing a big challenge to the
new president. Says Laxman: "Workers want something which the BJP as the
head of NDA Government cannot provide." For the BJP's new president, meeting
these impossible aspirations will be the acid test.
-with
Bureau Reports
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