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`Jail bharo' movement exposes BJP's local unit

Sujay Mehdudia

`Mobilisation of cadres and workers not satisfactory'

UNITED WE PROTEST: On the concluding day of BJP's `satyagraha and jail bharo andolan' the last batch of party workers courting arrest at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday against demolitions and sealing of shops in New Delhi .- PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA

NEW DELHI: The "Jail Bharo'' movement launched by the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party may have put the ruling Congress on the back foot, but it has also exposed chinks in the armour of the local unit. Not only was there a race to take credit for the BJP road show, senior BJP leaders were also worried over the fact that mobilisation of cadres and workers was not satisfactory.

Political observers in the Capital are of the view that right from former Union Minister Sahib Singh Verma to another former Minister Vijay Goel or even South Delhi MP Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the effort was aimed at individual projection and not taking up the cause of the party or the people. Incidentally, Mr. Malhotra, who is also the central party leader in charge of the Delhi unit, tried to use the opportunity to project himself by ensuring his presence at each and every protest. It is another matter that only after former Minister and suspended Hari Nagar MLA Harsharan Singh Balli staged a protest and got arrested that the BJP woke up to the situation and got into action mode. The Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, Jagdish Mukhi, a close confidant of Mr. Malhotra, also tried to outdo the Delhi unit president Harsh Vardhan by running an independent agitation on the issue.

However, the whole exercise after the initial launch turned out to be a damp squib as there was a struggle to ensure a decent presence of workers as well as traders for whose cause the whole agitation was launched. There were hardly a few hundred workers at the protests where even senior Central BJP leaders joined in

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