Karnataka - Bidar   

Sangh Parivar insists on fielding hardliners?

By Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

BIDAR, MARCH 21. The Sangh Parivar is said to be upset with the admission of disgruntled Congressmen into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "For them, the BJP is like the ticket window of a cinema. Once they enter the hall, no one knows where they are. There is complete darkness there," a senior leader of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) said.

The parivar appears to be concerned about the developments in Bidar and Aurad Assembly constituencies.

A delegation of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal leaders has appealed to the Union Law Minister and BJP in-charge of Karnataka, Arun Jaitely, to drop Ramesh Kumar Pandey, former MLA, in favour of Revana Siddappa Jalade or Eshwar Singh Thakur of the VHP while issuing the BJP ticket. Similarly, there is opposition to the possible entry of Chandrashekar Patil, son of the former minister, Manikarao Patil, and the entry of the former minister, Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli, into the BJP intending to contest from Aurad.

The Sangh Parivar is reported to be keen on fielding the VHP leader, Rajashekar Murthy, as BJP candidate from Aurad.

Mr. Jalade's association with the Sangh Parivar goes back to his student days when he was a volunteer of the Akhila Bharatiya Vidharythi Parishad (ABVP). While Mr. Thakur is most often seen in strikes or dharnas by the Parivar, Mr. Murthy is in-charge of the Ekal Vidyalayas (single teacher schools) run by the VHP in Aurad.

"Our insistence on an insider for the Bidar ticket is to counter the Congress which may field Syed Zulfikar Hashmi, who is a Muslim with radical views. Mr Pandey may be too soft for him. Similarly, our work in the tribal belts of Aurad is expected to translate into votes," a member of the delegation said.

The Sangh Parivar leaders are apprehensive about Mr. Jaitely's reported inclination to re-nominate those who were members in the dissolved Assembly.

"It is possible that Mr. Pandey's image and his track record of taking up drinking water and road laying projects in the city may help him.

Mr. Pandey also claims to have got votes from the minorities. But this time, it may not be possible. Also, an environment with the Atalji wave is the best time to get Parivar workers get elected," a VHP leader said.

However, the Sangh Parivar's claim for the BJP ticket from Aurad is even stronger as the BJP has a vacuum. Gundappa Vakil, who won in the 1999 election, joined the Congress after being expelled on charges of voting for Vijay Mallya in the Rajya Sabha elections.

"After this experience, we do not want to campaign for defectors who may end up to be self-serving, once the elections are over," said a senior Bajrang Dal functionary.

The Sangh Parivar also cites Prakash Khandre and Rajendra Verma, who were members in the last Assembly, and allegedly helped the district in-charge minister, Basavraj Patil Humnabad, in his election to the Legislative Council.

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