Personal charisma paved way for BJP’S electoral successes
NEWDELHI: Veteran politician LK Advani once told a group of journalists that it took a lot of effort to convince Atal Bihari Vajpayee about the need for a new political party — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
India’s current ruling party was founded on April 6, 1980 — it was Easter Sunday that year — after an executive meeting of the erstwhile Janata Party had decided two days ago to expel all members of the former Jana Sangh over dual membership.
Membership of Janata Party entailed them to affiliation to no other outfit, not even the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), ideological mentor to the Jana Sangh and its successor, the BJP.
“There was some conspiracy to throw us out,” Advani said in the interaction some years ago. Advani and Sundar Singh Bhandari, a fellow pracharak of the RSS, returned to Vajpayee after travelling across India between February and March 1980.
There was deep resentment among Jana Sangh activists at being treated as “second-class citizen” and Advani insisted Vajpayee should lead the new party.
“He had some doubts,” Advani said. “Is there scope for another party in India?”
Some persuasion from Advani and fellow partymen, and Vajpayee gave in. The BJP was born at an executive meeting called at Delhi’s Ferozeshah Kotla grounds with Vajpayee as its first president and Advani, Sikander Bakht and Suraj Bhan as general secretaries.
The BJP suffered humiliation in the 1984 parliamentary election, winning just two seats. Vajpayee lost to Madhavrao Scindia in Gwalior. A tough phase started for him.
The 1989 election injected a huge dose of euphoria into the BJP. It won 85 Lok Sabha seats in 1989; and 120 in 1991.
Advani had taken over from Vajpayee as the BJP chief in 1986, and steadily transformed himself into India’s first Hindu Hriday Samrat (king of Hindu hearts) with his Ram Rath Yatra to espouse the cause of a Hindu temple on a disputed site in Ayodhya.
Vajpayee took a back seat of sorts, spending a lot of time on things he loved — cinema, reading, travelling, gossiping, cooking and, of course, eating.
The demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in December 1992, however, made the BJP a political “untouchable”. This was when the need for Vajpayee was more acutely felt. And Advani himself declared, at a party national executive meeting in Mumbai in 1995, that Vajpayee would be the BJP’S Prime Ministerial candidate. In general election the next year, the party’s tally touched 161.
If Advani took the BJP up from two seats in 1984 to 120 in 1991, it was Vajpayee’s magic and personal charisma that helped the BJP get 161 seats in 1996 and 182 in 1998 and 1999. And this helped the party grab power.
Vajpayee’s contribution to the party’s growth was twofold. One, he appealed to a large swathe of voters beyond the BJP’S core.
And second, his presence made many leaders such as George Fernandes, Farooq Abdullah, N Chandrababu Naidu, Naveen Patnaik, Mamata Banerjee, and even M Karunanidhi shed their misgivings about the BJP and support the party’s bid for power. This was the reason he became the first non-congress PM to complete a full term in office.
The BJP today has grown into India’s most powerful political force. It would not have arrived here but for the contribution of Vajpayee – from the days of being a grassroots organiser and a backbencher MP to eventually becoming India’s most popular leader and widely admired Prime Minister.