M A I N   N E W S

Now, Khanduri takes potshot at a shaken BJP
SMA Kazmi
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 26
Taking cue from party leaders Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri has fired a salvo at the party leadership, questioning his removal from the post of Chief Minister.

Khanduri has been unhappy with his removal. He was asked to step down despite the support of a majority of party legislators.

He refused to comment on his letter to party president Rajnath Singh. “I will not discuss party affairs publicly,” he maintained, when approached by the media here today. “I will raise issues at the appropriate party fora,” he said.

Khanduri now plans to meet senior party leaders in the Capital. Sources say he has written to Rajnath Singh, questioning his removal as Chief Minister despite majority support. Khanduri has reportedly alleged that instead of owning collective responsibility for the party defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, he has been singled out and made a scapegoat.

The former CM is extremely unhappy at the manner he has been treated by the party high command and especially with Rajnath Singh who played a key role in his removal. He has demanded that the leadership should reconsider the matter.

Khanduri was replaced by Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in the third week of June. Today, he chose to remain tight-lipped about the contents of the letter to Rajnath Singh.

BJP regrets promoting leaders sans mass base
Faraz Ahmad
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 26
On a day when Sudheendra Kulkarni attached himself to Mamata Banerjee’s Railway Task Force, the party sat wondering whether it committed a mistake by encouraging the entry of professionals and intellectuals like Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie and Sudheendra Kulkarni who enjoyed no political base.

Kulkarni, a former journalist with CPI past, joined the BJP in 1996 when power was almost within striking distance of the party. He was a confidant and emissary of Vajpayee while he was the Prime Minister and later attached himself to Advani soon after the NDA lost. He headed the ‘war room’ of Advani’s campaign during the last General Election but started distancing himself from the BJP post the defeat.

Incidentally, the latest rebel in the party, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Major Gen BC Khanduri (Retd), too, falls in the category of former top-ranked Army and police officers who made an entry into the BJP when the party’s prospects were showing an upward movement. Khanduri has questioned the BJP’s decision to remove him from the post by holding him responsible for party’s electoral debacle in the state. The BJP had lost all the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand.

The BJP now seems to be regretting encouraging leaders sans political base and the ability to mobilise mass support. In the early 1990s, the image of a politician had started falling in the eyes of the average middle class Indian and in order to distinguish itself from parties like Janata Dal, whom the middle class looked at with disdain, BJP consciously encouraged people with known professional credentials and intellectual standing to join the party and project itself as a ‘party with a difference’, said sources.

Sources said when BJP-led NDA came to power in 1998 and right up to 2004 till it remained in power, such people were rewarded with prime posts by ignoring the legitimate claims of party cadres and leaders who rose from the ranks.

BJP insiders now ponder over why they treated a Jaswant, a Shourie or a Kulkarni with some degree of indulgence when they were of little use in organisational affairs. But they also admit their limitations vis-à-vis these high-profile individuals.

But if the BJP now pushes out such individuals, the party’s image among the middle classes would further suffer a jolt, inclining the latter towards Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi, a BJP insider opined.

Defiant Raje holds BJP MLAs’ meeting
Oppn to boycott Assembly session
Perneet Singh
Tribune News Service

Jaipur, August 26
Defying the party high command’s order to step down, Leader of Opposition Vasundhara Raje Scindia today held a meeting of BJP legislature party at the Rajasthan Assembly premises to chalk out the party’s strategy for the brief session starting tomorrow.

The meeting was attended by 71 out of the 78 BJP MLAs, including deputy leader of BJP legislature party Ghanshyam Tiwari and former Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria. An RSS-backed leader, Kataria is the frontrunner for Raje’s post. Significantly, two key Raje aides and BJP MLAs -Rajendra Singh Rathod and Gyandev Ahuja - who were suspended from the party on disciplinary grounds also attended the meeting.

It was decided in the meeting that the BJP would boycott the proceedings of the House and stage a dharna on the stairs of the Assembly when the session resumes after a month-long recess to protest against the suspension of three party MLAs - Gyandev Ahuja, Bhawani Singh Rajawat and Hem Singh Bhadana. They were suspended for a year from Rajasthan Assembly by Speaker Deepender Singh Shekhawat on July 28 for unruly behaviour and raising anti-government slogans while seeking assent to Gujjar reservation Bill. The BJP legislators also boycotted a meeting of Business Advisory Committee (BAC), which was called today to decide the agenda for the session.

Later talking to the media, Raje said she hasn't stepped down from her post till now. She denied that she had submitted her resignation before returning to Jaipur yesterday. When asked whether the high command asked her not to convene the legislature party meeting, she said, “It is not true. I’m a disciplined member of the party. Being the legislature party leader it is my duty to hold the meeting.”

On revocation of her two key aides, she said the matter was under consideration. “They have already given their replies to the notice served on them by the state BJP chief,” she added.