New Delhi, May 16
Uma Bharti, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh plans to resign her job as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s movement against Sonia Gandhi becoming Prime Minister. Authoritative sources in the BJP told The Tribune that Bharti had already conveyed her desire to the party and was positioning herself as the chief opposition to Sonia Gandhi. Sangh ideologue Govindracharya who is close to Bharti has decided to lead a movement against a person of foreign origin becoming Prime Minister.
Despite repeated attempts by the Tribune Bharti was not available for comments. Sources say that BJP leader Sushma Swaraj’s threat to resign from the Rajya Sabha was a bid to position herself ahead of Bharti and was made public once she came to know of Bharti’s plan.
It is believed that both are motivated by a desire to replace Venkaiah Naidu as BJP president. Says a senior BJP leader “Naidu going is inevitable and we want a lady to replace him.
Since Bharti’s sacrifice will be greater she will be a bigger claimant for the job.”
The BJP has also tried to rope in former PM Chandra Shekhar in a bid to unsettle the nascent Congress government.
Sources say that that if Sonia Gandhi takes over as Prime Ministerthe party’s slogan will be “jo sansad jayaga wooh desh drohi keh laygya” (whoever goes to Parliament will be considered a traitor).
While Prime Minister Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani are yet to take a final view on Bharti’s offer sources say that she has always fancied herself as a mass leader and will want to be in the forefront of the movement against Sonia Gandhi.
The BJP has already decided that it will take an aggressive stand on the issue of Sonia’s foreign origin and feels that a women leader to strike a chord with the public should spearhead the agitation. Says a senior BJP leader “ Sushma and Uma are also trying to out manoeuvre Pramod Mahajan and Arun Jaitley.
After all if they sacrifice their membership of the House, what face will these people go to the Parliament with ?”
Within the party the second-generation leaders are already positioning themselves for the power struggle within and want the party president’s job.
Sources say that Govindacharya who is Bharti’s chief adviser came up with the plan, which was supposed to create a huge splash. Sources say that the RSS was consulted and approved since it involved “tyag’’ (sacrifice) and would snowball in to a fresh issue against Sonia Gandhi.
Sources say that Bharti would make the announcement once Sonia Gandhi’s swearing in was
announced.
