The Hindu : New Delhi News : Leadership crisis grips BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 30, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Leadership crisis grips BJP

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 29. A leadership crisis appears to have hit the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party and it is finding it extremely difficult to give the required impetus to its election campaign for the seven Lok Sabha seats from the Capital. As if this was not enough, the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is understood to have declined to give time for a BJP rally in the Capital and the duty has now fallen on the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani.

On the other hand, an upbeat Congress party is gearing up to hold a massive show on May 7 at the Ramlila grounds. The party president, Sonia Gandhi, will address the rally.

For the Delhi BJP, nothing seems to be going its way. The party president, Venkaiah Naidu, is upset over poor public response to his rallies in the Capital two days ago. He is understood to have conveyed to the Delhi BJP leadership his annoyance over the failure of the local party candidates and office-bearers to organise decent crowds for his meetings. The low-key response to Mr. Naidu's meetings is understood to have forced the other BJP leaders including some party Chief Ministers to either re-schedule their visits or cancel them. Those who had scheduled their programmes for Delhi included the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Raman Singh, and the party's Hindutva mascot, Narendra Modi. However, in view of the poor response and no demand from the contesting candidates, these leaders have been forced to cancel their tour programmes or work them out again. In fact, during the Assembly polls, Mr. Modi was forced to cancel his programme in the Capital in view of the reluctance of party leaders to have him in their constituencies.

The party had sent an SOS to the Prime Minister to bail them out of this situation by giving at least time for one rally in the Capital. However, the response has not been positive and Mr. Vajpayee is understood to have declined the request of the Delhi leaders. In fact, during the public meetings addressed by him in the run up for the Assembly polls in Delhi, the poor attendance had peeved the Prime Minister and he had reprimanded the local leadership for their failure to mobilise decent crowds.

It has now been left to Mr. Advani to lead the party's campaign in the Capital and he would be addressing a series of meetings on May 3. However, a section within the BJP informed that the Delhi BJP leaders were also reluctant to hold a massive rally in the Capital in view of the poor mobilisation and the strong infighting within the party.

"This is where the party is missing a leader like the former Chief Minister, Madan Lal Khurana. At least he had the power to mobilise the cadres and take on the Opposition. His absence from the political scene is being felt now as nobody of his stature is presently available in the party," a senior party leader remarked. In fact, the BJP has turned defensive after reports about the declining fortunes of the party and there is a talk of how the party had blundered by repeating all the sitting Members of Parliament in Delhi. The anti-incumbency factor has been overlooked by the BJP in case of these candidates and this is what is going to prove to be the undoing of the party in the Lok Sabha polls, he added.

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