The Hindu : New Delhi News : Khurana effect leaves BJP running for cover

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 14, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Khurana effect leaves BJP running for cover

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, MAY 13. Notwithstanding the tall pre-poll claims of the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party leadership on winning a majority of the seven Lok Sabha seats at stake in Delhi, the local party leaders were convinced that it was heading for one of its worst defeats in recent times. Some attribute it to wrong selection of candidates, some to a strong anti-incumbency factor. But there is a school of thought that attributes the current slide in fortunes to the Khurana effect.

The very fact that the Congress candidate for the Delhi Sadar Lok Sabha seat, Jagdish Tytler, managed to reduce the BJP lead in the party's stronghold of Moti Nagar Assembly segment is an indication of the strong resentment against the BJP in this Khurana domain. While Mr. Tytler won the Lok Sabha seat, the Assembly seat went to the BJP candidate and Khurana loyalist, Subhash Sachdeva, who won it by a margin of 9,977 votes. The turn of events is not surprising and Mr. Khurana's supporters are already talking of having taken revenge for the humiliation of their leader.

Interestingly, at a review meeting of the Delhi unit of BJP held this past Tuesday, the local level leaders were doubtful over the outcome of the polls and predicted a bleak scenario. However, there were some who felt that the party would emerge victorious in a majority of the seats. Even the margins predicted by the party leaders for various seats were quite low. Some leaders were also of the opinion the party was paying a price for renominating all sitting MPs.

Sources in the party confessed that it was probably for the first time in three decades that the BJP had contested elections without the presence of the former Chief Minister, Madan Lal Khurana. Be it the Assembly polls or the Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Khurana was always present in some form or the other to provide the required aggression during an election campaign. During the current Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Khurana, who is now the Governor of Rajasthan, was nowhere on the scene. Interestingly, Mr. Khurana's supporters point an accusing finger at Vijay Goel, Sahib Singh Verma and Vijay Kumar Malhotra, for ensuirng the ouster of their leader from city politics by putting the entire blame on him for the defeat in the Assembly polls. However, not one to give up easily, Mr. Khurana has managed to make his absence felt his absence from the political scene.

Senior BJP leaders confessed that not allowing Mr. Khurana to carry on in city politics and contest the Lok Sabha polls had proved costly for the party. There was a vacuum in the leadership at the State level. Also, the Punjabi and refugee communities got annoyed with the party for having ignored their interests and for making Mr. Khurana a scapegoat of the Assembly polls defeat. This led to a chain reaction where apart from the dissidents within the party, Khurana supporters and loyalists too ensured that the impact of his absence was felt at all levels.

Many within the party confess that another reason for the poor performance at the hustings could be the inexperience of the present State BJP leadership and its inability to carry out an aggressive campaign during and in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. "The party could face a setback in the reviving its dipping fortunes after the drubbing. There is need for a leadership that is aggressive, takes up issues effectively and puts the Sheila Dikshit Government on the mat,'' remarked a senior party leader.

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