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Tuesday, Jun 26, 2007
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National

BJP leaders’ warning

Neena Vyas

They seek immediate remedial measures

Infighting in the party’s U.P. unit is decades old
Tripathi likely to be replaced as state unit president

NEW DELHI: The national executive committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party was warned by some leaders on Monday that the party could come down to three to two seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2009 Lok Sabha election if some immediate remedial steps were not taken.

Immediately after the State unit president Kesri Nath Tripathi read a report on the recent U.P. Assembly elections, party MP from Pilibhit Maneka Gandhi, is reported to have warned the party of worse times ahead if it does not get its house in order. She, apparently said, the next Lok Sabha election could see the BJP down to 2 or 3 Lok Sabha seats, from the 10 seats it won in 2004. She indicated that only a few leaders would be able to win the election on their own strength, no thanks to the party.

The new legislative party leader Om Prakash Singh also did not mince words. It was reported that he said no leader in the party’s State unit trusts another; no worker trusts the leaders; and the people do not trust the party.

The discussion was on the party’s recent poll debacle in U.P. where it won around 50 seats in an Assembly of 403. In fact, Mr. Tripathi himself led the charge by pointing out that the perception among the people was that the BJP was “pro-Mulayam Singh Yadav” at a time when the Mulayam Singh government was suffering from anti-incumbency and the people were determined to get rid of it. Clearly the BJP could not emerge as the alternative when it was seen to be soft on the very government the people wanted replaced.

Party president Rajnath Singh had presented the U.P. defeat as an opportunity and a challenge that the BJP should prepare to overcome, and he noted that 15 days after the “shocking” party results in the Assembly election, the BJP did record a victory in a bye-election in Khaga, a seat it had never won before.

The infighting in the party’s U.P. unit is decades old and the recent defeat has only worsened it. The BJP is hoping that general secretary Arun Jaitley will impose his authority to bring about some semblance of unity and discipline.

Mr. Tripathi, who has offered to resign from the post of state president, is continuing for the moment, but major changes in the state unit’s organisation are not ruled out.

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