ELECTIONS '98 COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

'Unfortunately, in the BJP in Rajasthan, power is centralised. Only one man takes decisions'

After the Bharatiya Janata Party's debacle in the assembly election in Rajasthan, it seems every leader of the party has gone into hiding. Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has not met party workers and it is only state BJP president Raghuveer Singh Kaushal who is putting up a brave front.

When Syed Firdaus Ashraf spoke to Hari Shankar Bhabra, the deputy chief minister was trailing in Ratangad. Later that night, Bhabra became one of the casualties, one of 28 ministers to lose the election.

Did you expect your party to perform this badly?

No, not at all. I knew we will not be forming the next government, but never expected this bad performance.

So what went wrong?

The most important factor which went against us is the anti-incumbency vote. The people wanted a change. And that is why they voted for the Congress party. Today, you ask any common man in Rajasthan about our performance. They will say the BJP has performed better than the Congress in the last 40 years.

So change was the only reason for the debacle?

No, you see there are other factors like caste politics. There has been a wrong perception in Rajasthan that the BJP is the party of Rajputs. And they have this perception because our CM is a Rajput. So all other communities decided to dislodge the BJP. And after seeing the results, I am convinced they have succeeded.

What about price rise?

No, this is an incorrect perception that the BJP lost because of price rise. In the last 50 years there has been constant price rise. One kilo of rice used to be worth a few annas in 1947. But you see the price now. It has increased more than a hundred times. So people know that price rise is a temporary phenomenon.

I feel people wanted a change just like they wanted a change in 1990 when they gave us the mandate. You come after 5 years, you will see that the BJP will once again win. (Laughs.) So, this is a process.

Your government was dependent on Independents for your survival and had a wafer-thin majority in the state assembly. Do you think that put you at a disadvantage?

Having a wafer-thin majority, we were at a disadvantage. For example, you see the bureaucracy. They have the real power. Even if our ministers ordered them to implement our policies, they used to delay it. And more importantly, the bureaucracy at the lower level is corrupt and pro-Congress. They never let the people’s work get done. So these things affected the government's functioning.

Why are you and so many ministers trailing this election?

Jab aandhi aati hai to bargat ke pedh bhi gir jate hai to hum to insaan hai (When a cyclone comes strong trees fall. We are only human beings).

What next?

What else? Back to the Opposition. The Jan Sangh has been in Opposition since 1952. So the Opposition benches are not new to us. We are used to it. It is the Congress which is not used to the Opposition benches.

Don’t you think your party should have taken some steps to avoid defeat after the disastrous performance in the general election?

Forget about before the Lok Sabha election. I have time and again pointed out to the party high command and central leaders that we need to do a lot of things to improve our image in Rajasthan. But our party felt that the development work which we had projected as the major achievement in our election manifesto would make us win.

One of the unfortunate things in the BJP in Rajasthan is that power is centralised, and only one man takes decisions.

Are you indicating your ire against Chief Minister Shekhawat?

I don’t want to take any names and create controversies within my party. But if people want change, we will have to accept it.

Wherever I travelled in Rajasthan. I found that the farmers were upset with the BJP because of the shortage of electricity...

Rajasthan has best, uninterrupted power supply. In fact, in the last eight years, we have doubled the power supply from what it was under Congress rule. In eight years we generated 510 megawatts of electricity. Today, the demand of electricity in Rajasthan is 4,000 megawatts. And the state government is providing 3,500 megawatts.

Our government with the help of the National Thermal Power Corporation and other power sources made it possible for uninterrupted power supply in Rajasthan.

Students at Rajasthan University are upset with the BJP because they lost one year.

On this issue, unnecessarily, hum logon ko badnam kar diya Congress ne. The university comes under the governor and the vice-chancellor. The state government has very little role to play. But after the Nishant Bharadwaj case the blame came onto us.

Today, the BJP headquarters wears a desolate look. How will you rebuild your party in the state?

The same scene was there at the Congress head office in Rajasthan five years ago when they lost. You should have come then. This kind of situation is nothing new for a losing party. But we have to seriously analyse our defeat and find a strategy to boost the confidence of our workers.

Assembly Election '98

Tell us what you think of this interview