STRAYING FROM THE FLOCK
The influx of rebels from other parties has bred disaffection within the state BJP ranks
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s ignoble defeat at the hands of a united opposition in the all-important Lok Sabha byelection in Kairana appears to have blown the lid on the hotpot of disaffection that is brewing within the saffron party. When the debacle became obvious during the counting of votes on May 31, Bharatendu Singh, the party’s MP from Bijnor, promptly blamed Bhupendra Chaudhary, Uttar Pradesh’s panchayati raj minister and the election in-charge in Kairana. “Individuals with experience in winning [elections] should have been entrusted with the election,” he said, alluding to the fact that Chaudhary was made a minister despite losing three elections. Only hours later, the party’s Hindutva flag-bearer in western UP and Sardhana (Meerut) legislator Sangeet Som also publicly conceded that voters in Kairana were disillusioned with local leaders.
It did not end there. Gopamau (Hardoi) MLA Shyam Prakash, who recently described Yogi Adityanath as a “helpless” man, launched a frontal attack on the chief minister. “Modi naam se pa gaye raj, kar na sake janta man kaaj, Sangh sangathan haath lagaam, Mukhyamantri bhi asahaya (Became the CM on the strength of Modi’s name, unable to meet people’s expectations, the Sangh holds the reins, the CM is helpless),” Prakash spouted in a Facebook post.
Losing Kairana seems to have been something of a ‘final straw’ for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, as it was already reeling in
the wake of byelection losses in Gorakhpur and Phulpur in March.
Although state BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey attributes the defeat in Kairana as well as the assembly bypoll in Noorpur to “unfavourable local equations”, it is more than evident that the saffron party suffered because of bitter personal rivalries between its leaders. And it’s no surprise that the party leadership is now probing the role of a number of local leaders. Insiders say these include BJP men who publicly opposed the nomination of a family member of Lokendra Pratap Singh, the late Kairana MP whose demise necessitated the bypoll.
Banaras Hindu University political scientist Ajit Kumar says it is ironic that while antithetical political parties are allying against the BJP, the saffron party is itself riven by internal rivalries.
Analysts say turf wars between state leaders have taken a serious toll on party discipline. For instance, during the cooperative bank elections in January, supporters of BJP MLA Yogesh Verma, the poll in charge Shyamu Pandey and another legislator Ramkumar Verma clashed inside Lakhimpur’s Vikas Bhawan, over the choice of the chairman of the Central Co-operative Bank.
Local leaders complain that the state leadership is fanning factionalism within the party. Like when an official, known for his integrity and favoured by local BJP leaders, was transferred on the demand of the Kaisarganj MP Braj Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has challenged the writ of Lucknow more than once.
Much of the disaffection in the ranks can be attributed to the induction of defectors from other parties who joined the BJP following its blistering assembly poll victory last year. In Aligarh for example, the induction of the BSP’s Thakur Jaiveer Singh on July 31 last year prompted angry protests by local BJP men. Jaiveer is a strong contender for Aligarh Lok Sabha ticket in 2019, and this has predictably angered the sitting BJP MP Satish Gautam.
Allahabad University social scientist Shiv Shankar says the continuing influx of leaders from other parties is breeding insecurity amid local BJP men at various levels. This could have troubling consequences for the saffron party in 2019.
PERSONAL RIVALRIES, IT IS EVIDENT, LED TO THE BJP’S UNDOING IN KAIRANA