Tension in BJP camp as elections draw near

There was a flurry of activity in the government last week when the massive farmers’ rally reached Ghaziabad and the protesters insisted on entering the Capital. Ironically, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, who should have rightfully dealt with the agitating farmers, was nowhere on the scene. The minister was in Motihari, Bihar, to oversee the activities organised in connection with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship programme Swachch Bharat. Consequently, home minister Rajanath Singh was deployed to negotiate with the farmers. Singh was assisted by a host of ministerial colleagues, including steel minister Birendra Singh, a Jat leader from Haryana who is well networked with kisan leaders and has an understanding of issues relating to the agriculture sector. He was involved in backchannel discussions with the leaders of the kisan unions. The home minister was also joined by the minister of state for agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. But, by the time the protesting farmers ended their agitation, Birendra Singh was pushed to the background by his colleagues for fear that he may take the credit for the successful handling of the farmers’ stir. Shekhawat was, however, at the forefront and was seen to have played a major role in negotiations with the agitators. The junior minister is said to be the new poster boy in the BJP and is being projected as a future leader with an eye on the year-end Rajasthan polls. Recently, he was also fielded by the BJP to address a press conference on the Rafale deal. B haratiya Janata Party president Amit Shah has earned quite a reputation as a master strategist and an excellent organiser, proved several times over in the last four years by the spectacular electoral victories chalked up by the party. However, Shah may end up losing his Midas touch if reports from poll-bound Rajasthan are anything to go by. Though Shah is putting in his best effort to beat the anti-incumbency against Vasundhara Raje government, his team members are having a tough time dealing with the chief minister. Unlike other senior party leaders, Vasundhara Raje has shown that she is no pushover and cannot be dictated to by anyone. According to the political grapevine, the chief minister has not taken kindly to constant interference from the party headquarters and is particularly unhappy with the functioning of Shah’s protégé Chandra Shekhar, especially deployed in Rajasthan by the BJP president to rev up the party organisation and oversee election-related activities. As mandated by Shah, he has been meeting workers and strategising for the year-end polls. However, this has resulted in considerable tension as Vasundhara Raje is loathed to cede control over the state unit. In a related development, BJP leader and former MP Avinash Rai Khanna, who was given charge of several districts, is said to be incommunicado for the past several days. Clearly, all is not well in Rajasthan for the BJP. A s the next round of elections draws closer, there is palpable tension in the Bharatiya Janata Party. Sitting Lok Sabha members are worried at losing their tickets following inside reports that the party plans to drop a large number of elected members and new faces will be fielded in their place to beat anti-incumbency. Many apprehensive MPs have, predictably, started lobbying with their respective mentors and godfathers in the party to make sure that they are not dropped. Many have made a beeline to veteran leader L.K. Advani’s residence to persuade him to break his silence and air his views on the state of affairs in the BJP. They particularly want Advani to go public with the centralised style of functioning of the present BJP leadership. However, Advani has not warmed to the proposal and is of the view that no purpose would be served even if he were to go public with these grievances. Advani and other senior leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha have been effectively sidelined ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah took charge of the party. These senior leaders did issue a strongly-worded statement following the BJP’s humiliating defeat in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls but nothing came of it. T he various committees set up by Congress president Rahul Gandhi to prepare for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls have started working.

While the core committee is yet to come up with an over-arching theme and slogan for next year’s general election, the publicity committee, headed by former minister and Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma, has laid down some ground rules.

The panel has realised the value of going local and using vernacular languages. It has, therefore, decided that the election publicity material, including advertisements and hoardings, will be put out in local languages. In addition, it was also decided to field local leaders, who can speak fluently in regional languages, to address press conferences.

This followed all-round agreement that regional languages are best in capturing the nuance and flavor of a message which would, otherwise, get lost when communicated in Hindi or English.