RAJASTHAN: INFIGHTING IN THE BJP
On July 17, the Rajasthan unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sent a sharp message to former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and her loyalists. By expelling Rohitash Sharma, an exminister and threetime MLA, from the party for six years, the BJP high command was sending out the message that anyone who does not follow the party line will pay a heavy price. Sharma had been making proRaje statements in public, projecting her as the next chief ministerial candidate while also openly criticising BJP state chief Satish Poonia, none of which sat well with the party.
Sharma’s expulsion is in line with the warning Arun Singh, BJP national general secretary and Rajasthan incharge, recently gave to party leaders—to not make “arbitrary statements” in public. The current dispensation will hope that expelling Sharma will have a chilling effect and help rein in dissidence in the party’s Rajasthan unit, but other party insiders predict it will have just the opposite effect and increase factionalism.
On July 18, the banners put up in Jodhpur to welcome national general secretary C.T. Ravi included photographs of Raje and other leaders, but not of Poonia. An image was later inserted following a directive from the state headquarters in Jaipur. During Poonia’s visit to Alwar on July 15, Sharma’s team had put up posters with images of the BJP national leaders and Raje, once again omitting Poonia.
Incensed at Sharma’s open defiance, Poonia was waiting to strike. He saw his opportunity on July 17 when Sharma was drawn into a slightly indiscreet reference to Prime Minister Modi in a spat with BJP spokesperson Ramlal Sharma. Baited by Ramlal, who questioned Rohitash’s commitment to the BJP’s ideology, he shot back that he was a “disciple of Nawal Kishore Sharma, the late Congress leader who, as governor of Gujarat, had ignored the UPA’s order to indict then chief minister Narendra Modi in the Godhra riots case”. In this freely interpretable reference, Poonia saw a legitimate excuse to expel Sharma. One of Raje’s aides, requesting anonymity, spoke of an incident in April when, in a viral audio clip, Jogeshwar Garg, the BJP’s whip, was heard using Amit Shah’s name to threaten a rebel BJP candidate to withdraw from contesting a bypoll. “If a good reference to Modi can lead to expulsion, why ignore casting Shah in a bad light?” he asks.
The BJP has threatened stern action against anyone making false moves or public statements that might embarrass the party, but the fact is that there have been too many transgressions in the state lately. Take, for another example, Bhawani Singh Rajawat’s public declaration that in Rajasthan ‘BJP is Raje and Raje is BJP’ or Pratap Singh Singhvi’s public claim that it would be difficult to form a government in the state without Raje. This belief has many takers in the state unit and not just among Raje loyalists. Of course, Sharma, undeterred by his expulsion, said this even after he was shown the door. He said the state unit needed Raje in the same way that the party needed Modi to win at the national level. The lack of strong state leaders, Sharma says, is resulting in defeats in state elections. The ruling Congress party also did not project a chief minister and has ever since been torn between the two contenders to the top post—CM Ashok Gehlot and his bête noire Sachin Pilot. There might a lesson in it for the BJP.
Raje was not seen during the campaign for byelections in April, but her birthday celebration in March was like a show of strength—even out of favour, Raje demonstrated she had the support of nearly half the party MLAs and a third of the MPs from the state. Vimal Katiyar, state president of the BJP’s media cell, does not believe Raje is instigating rebels. “She has a medical emergency at home, so is not very active politically. Also, it is too early for a leader of her stature to engage in routine political activities,” says Katiyar. It’s certainly not too early for the BJP high command to decide on a course of action, with or without Raje, for the 2023 election. Coercing her loyalists to abandon her is not looking like a plan that might work.
The BJP will hope that expelling Raje loyalist Rohitash Sharma might quell dissidence in the state unit but it might do just the opposite