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Double Trouble
Far from
introspecting after the poll debacle, the BJP in Uttar Pradesh slips further
down as a growing number of legislators complain of marginalisation. India
Today's Special Correspondent Subhash Mishra reports.
The
BJP, it appears, hasn't learnt much from its dismal showing in Uttar Pradesh.
Less than 48 hours after the election results were announced, the state
unit of party was rocked by major differences which didn't entirely have
to do with the polls. Much of the ruckus was over Chief Minister Rajnath
Singh's rather hurried meeting with some MLAs where he got himself elected
as leader of the legislature party. Of the 88 legislators belonging to
the BJP, only three dozen were present. Yet, Rajnath was "unanimously"
elected.
"We did not get information on time and could not reach Lucknow to
attend the legislature party meeting," said one of the new MLAs,
echoing the words of many other colleagues. Senior leader Om Prakash Singh
was among the first to have challenged the BJP leadership on this issue.
"I object to the manner in which the leader of the legislature party
was elected," he said, adding that a "lack of collective leadership"
was the main reason behind the BJP's debacle in the state.
Om Prakash, who won from Chunar for the fifth consecutive time, sees the
latest turn of events as a move that sought to marginalise him. That he
and Rajnath have seldom seen eye to eye is no secret. For one, Rajnath
had superceded him in becoming the chief minister. Another grouse was
the manner in which the upper caste lobby had managed to secure his removal
from the state presidentship to accommodate Kalraj Mishra. According to
Om Prakash, a strong Kurmu leader, the Brahmin-Thakur lobby of the party
was pushing him to the wall, as in the case of Kalyan Singh.
Equally piqued is Ram Prakash Tripathi, vice-president of the party. Despite
having won the assembly election six times from Chibramau constituency—and
once as MP—Tripathi feels he has been a victim of neglect. This time,
out of the 70 constituencies in 10 districts, the BJP had won only one
seat, namely Tripathi's but according to him, no one seemed to be taking
note. Earlier too, he had challenged Kalraj Mishra in the election of
the state president but Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee intervened
and changed his mind after promising to accommodate him "respectfully".
Tripathi, however, was forgotten after Mishra's election and had to struggle
to even secure a party ticket for the assembly polls.
All set to take up the matter with the central leadership, Tripathi points
out that casteism within the BJP had completely eroded its base in Uttar
Pradesh. "The party will have to work hard to emerge as a formidable
force before the next Lok Sabha elections," he adds.
Many legislators of the BJP feel that the Rajnath Singh government was
squarely to blame for the party's debacle in the state. "It was the
result of criminal and corrupt elements in the government which had dented
the image of the party," says Vindhayawasini Kumar, MLC.
The general feeling is that the state unit of the party had failed to
hold election committee meeting during or before the elections. They now
want a meeting of the state executive committee to be called to conduct
a "post-mortem". But that may not be of any avail unless the
BJP makes amends and puts its house in order.
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