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BJP top brass wake up to growing rebellion

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The BJP central leadership will issue a stern warning to senior party members who are criticising it for their non-inclusion in the Vajpayee government.

Senior party officials told rediff.com that it had come to the leadership's notice that a low-key campaign was being carried out by certain party members, who are former ministers, and who "rave and rant against prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for not including them in his government." They pointed out that while the leadership ignored it initially after the National Democratic Alliance government assumed office, the recurrence of the criticism "every other day" has become a sore point with it.

It is learnt that former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma and former Union parliamentary affairs minister Madan Lal Khurana are among those Lok Sabha MPs who continue to 'snipe' at the prime minister and voice their grouse. Both Verma and Khurana are among the victors who figure in the BJP's clean sweep of all the seven parliamentary seats in Delhi.

Stunned by the complaints against Verma and Khurana pouring in at the BJP's Ashoka Road headquarters in the national capital, party chief Kushabhau Thakre is said to be losing his patience over their constant criticism. "The Kalyan Singh episode has convinced the leadership that no party member is a holy cow. Kalyan Singh has to pay for his verbal attacks on the prime minister and similar culprits treading the same forbidden path will pay likewise," a party vice-president pointed out, adding that "the gentlemen are being told to desist or be damned."

What seems to have got the BJP leadership's goat are the "informal get-togethers" where Verma and Khurana freely give vent to their spleen and where reporters and mediapersons are invariably present. While television cameras are not allowed at such get-togethers, press reports abound about the dissatisfaction of Verma and Khurana who leave no one in doubt that Vajpayee is the cause of their woes.

To justify their grouse, BJP sources underlined that Verma and Khurana are saying that they have to live up to their promises made to their supporters which can only come about if they are made ministers.

But such argument does not sway the bosses at 11 Ashoka Road, the BJP hq. Said a BJP vice -president: "By that yardstick, we should be having a revolution in the party because each MP can claim he has his voters to satisfy. The people who are holding out such argument should know better because they themselves have been central ministers. The prime minister decides who is to be a minister and his decision are final and cannot be questioned."

The virtual revolt by the ousted Uttar Pradesh chief minister and the tough stance of the central BJP leadership against it has jarred the high command, so much so that senior leaders are advocating nipping in the bud any indiscipline from whichever party quarter.

"Tell me, which party can tolerate indiscipline?" said BJP central spokesman Venkaiah Naidu when asked to comment on reports of some UP party legislators openly meeting rebel leader Kalyan Singh. "We are awaiting Govindacharyaji's (BJP general secretary in-charge of the state) observations in this context so that the leadership can decide what is to be done," Naidu said. But when queried on the rumblings by Verma and Khurana, he merely said, "I don't know, I am not aware of it."

According to BJP sources, the scrutiny of Kalyan Singh's reply to the show-cause notice served on him will merely be a formality because the central leadership is reconciled to the parting of ways between him and the party. Accordingly, senior leaders have been alerted and the UP chief minister has been armed with political teeth to deal with the situation arising out of his predecessor's imminent departure from the BJP.

It is understood that a section of the BJP leadership has advocated that the rebel leader ought to be offered the olive branch to prevent party legislators from joining him if he deserts it but Govindacharya has put his foot down. "Govindacharyaji has spoken to BJP MLAs as well as those of its allies in UP and they have expressed their readiness to back chief minister Ram Prakash Gupta," spokesman Naidu reiterated.

However, reports from Lucknow indicated that eight BJP MLAs had resolved to supporter the ousted chief minister. These include Kailash Rajput, Kripa Shankar, Ram Sikh, Netram Singh, Ram Sevak singh and Ram Chandra Maurya. Two BJP state ministers, Baharon Lal Maurya and Dharam Pal, have also reportedly decided to support Kalyan Singh. Besides, Samata Party legislator Raghuvir Dayal Verma and SJP legislator Pitam Ram are also supporting the rebel leader.

But the criticism of Kalyan Singh by backward caste leaders like Satyapal Yadav, Awadh Pal Yadav, Prem Pal Yadav, Darshan Singh Yadav and Sunder Singh Baghel has provided confidence to the BJP central leadership that it can tide over the political threat from Kalyan Singh and ensure the survival of the Ram Prakash gupta government.

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