It seems that the BJP has learned nothing from the drubbing it received in the recent national elections. The party was very confident of getting enough seats, in fact to win more seats than it did last time, and form the government at the centre. It had stated about a year back that Mr. L .K. Advani would be the Prime Minister if the NDA won the election.
Dashing all its hopes the people rejected it and voted the UPA to power for a second time. The Congress won 206 seats where as the BJP could win only 116 seats. The difference was significant and the BJP admitted defeat gracefully and congratulated Mr. Manmohan Singh whom it had dubbed as the weakest Prime Minister India ever had. Although the BJP performed well in Karnataka and Gujarat, the Congress made it bite dust in Rajasthan and Delhi. In Delhi Congress won all the 11 seats. In Madhya Pradesh the BJP lost many seats it had won earlier.
The BJP leaders were at a loss to explain their loss. Later the success of Congress was attributed mainly to its National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the wavier of bank loans before the elections.
Soon it became clear that the BJP leadership could not explain away the defeat so easily. The party seemed united behind Advani before the election. No body had openly challenged Advani. Arun Shourie, a senior leader and former Disinvestment Minister in the Vajpayee government, spoke and wrote articles supporting Advani. Even Shekhavat a senior BJP leader and former Vice President who seemed to do so became silent soon. It cannot be said with any degree of certainty that there were any differences on its Prime Ministerial candidate.
Advani said that, as soon as the verdict was out, he was resigning as the leader of opposition owning responsibility for the poll debacle. However many others in party prevailed upon him not to resign. Slowly and gradually murmurs were heard from within the party about the way the election campaign was conducted. Yashwant Sinha, a senor leader and Finance Minister in the Vajpayee government, came out openly against the party leadership for its mishandling the campaign. He resigned all the party posts he had held. The party accepted his resignation, though it did not dare to expel him from the party.
Now it has become clear the Arun Shourie also had expressed his displeasure at the manner in which the campaign was run from Delhi. He said the campaign managers decided even the places where the hoardings were to be put up, sitting in Delhi without consulting the local leaders. Neither Advani nor Rajnath Singh paid attention to what Sinha and he had to say. The party did not invite nether of them to attend what was called ‘Chinthan Baitak’, a session of introspection.
Meanwhile Jaswant Singh, another senior leader and a member of the party since its inception published a biography of Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. He claimed that Jinnah was not that communal as he was made out to be. He also said both Nehru and Patel were as much responsible for the partition as Jinnah was. This was not acceptable neither to Rajnath or Advani. So Jaswant was expelled from the party for defying the party discipline. However, it is interesting to recall that it was Jaswant Singh who stood behind Advani when he stated Jinnah was not communal leader but a secular leader. The Gujarat government has also banned the book in the state.
It was then Arun Shourie came in the open and called the BJP a ‘kati patang’ (A kite with broken chord). In an interview given to the NDTV on 24 August, Shourie dubbed Rajnath Sing the party president, “Alice in Blunderland” and “Humpty Dumpty”. He said, “In my view, the BJP is a kati patang. And unless it is gotten hold by….not by the people in the BJP; they are simply incapable of doing it. The RSS should get hold of it….My question is the BJP a private property belonging to some individuals?”
Although many expected the party to expel Shourie from the party immediately, it has not happened yet. Rajnath Singh discussed the interview with the vice-president of the party M.A.Naqvi, and general secretaries such as Thawarchand Gehlot, Ramlal and Vinay Katyar and asked Shourie to ‘clarify’ his comments in the interview. Perhaps the party is afraid to expel him lest he reveal many other things.
Dashing all its hopes the people rejected it and voted the UPA to power for a second time. The Congress won 206 seats where as the BJP could win only 116 seats. The difference was significant and the BJP admitted defeat gracefully and congratulated Mr. Manmohan Singh whom it had dubbed as the weakest Prime Minister India ever had. Although the BJP performed well in Karnataka and Gujarat, the Congress made it bite dust in Rajasthan and Delhi. In Delhi Congress won all the 11 seats. In Madhya Pradesh the BJP lost many seats it had won earlier.
The BJP leaders were at a loss to explain their loss. Later the success of Congress was attributed mainly to its National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the wavier of bank loans before the elections.
Soon it became clear that the BJP leadership could not explain away the defeat so easily. The party seemed united behind Advani before the election. No body had openly challenged Advani. Arun Shourie, a senior leader and former Disinvestment Minister in the Vajpayee government, spoke and wrote articles supporting Advani. Even Shekhavat a senior BJP leader and former Vice President who seemed to do so became silent soon. It cannot be said with any degree of certainty that there were any differences on its Prime Ministerial candidate.
Advani said that, as soon as the verdict was out, he was resigning as the leader of opposition owning responsibility for the poll debacle. However many others in party prevailed upon him not to resign. Slowly and gradually murmurs were heard from within the party about the way the election campaign was conducted. Yashwant Sinha, a senor leader and Finance Minister in the Vajpayee government, came out openly against the party leadership for its mishandling the campaign. He resigned all the party posts he had held. The party accepted his resignation, though it did not dare to expel him from the party.
Now it has become clear the Arun Shourie also had expressed his displeasure at the manner in which the campaign was run from Delhi. He said the campaign managers decided even the places where the hoardings were to be put up, sitting in Delhi without consulting the local leaders. Neither Advani nor Rajnath Singh paid attention to what Sinha and he had to say. The party did not invite nether of them to attend what was called ‘Chinthan Baitak’, a session of introspection.
Meanwhile Jaswant Singh, another senior leader and a member of the party since its inception published a biography of Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. He claimed that Jinnah was not that communal as he was made out to be. He also said both Nehru and Patel were as much responsible for the partition as Jinnah was. This was not acceptable neither to Rajnath or Advani. So Jaswant was expelled from the party for defying the party discipline. However, it is interesting to recall that it was Jaswant Singh who stood behind Advani when he stated Jinnah was not communal leader but a secular leader. The Gujarat government has also banned the book in the state.
It was then Arun Shourie came in the open and called the BJP a ‘kati patang’ (A kite with broken chord). In an interview given to the NDTV on 24 August, Shourie dubbed Rajnath Sing the party president, “Alice in Blunderland” and “Humpty Dumpty”. He said, “In my view, the BJP is a kati patang. And unless it is gotten hold by….not by the people in the BJP; they are simply incapable of doing it. The RSS should get hold of it….My question is the BJP a private property belonging to some individuals?”
Although many expected the party to expel Shourie from the party immediately, it has not happened yet. Rajnath Singh discussed the interview with the vice-president of the party M.A.Naqvi, and general secretaries such as Thawarchand Gehlot, Ramlal and Vinay Katyar and asked Shourie to ‘clarify’ his comments in the interview. Perhaps the party is afraid to expel him lest he reveal many other things.
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