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Raje Govt. faces flak from own party leader

Notes of dissent?: BJP leader Devi Singh Bhati

JAIPUR: Rajput strongman Devi Singh Bhati, who was brought back to the Bharatiya Janata Party last September by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, has seemingly fallen out with the ruling set-up here once again.

Mr. Bhati, who was conspicuous by his absence at this past Monday’s Dalit rally addressed by Ms. Raje and party in-charge Gopinath Munde, said in his home town Bikaner on Wednesday that there seemed to be “no governance” in the State.

Mr. Bhati’s outburst came soon after his visit to PBM Hospital in Bikaner to meet Monday’s road mishap victims who were returning from Bikaner after the rally to their home town Nokha. The accident claimed 14 lives and left over 40 persons injured.

“The Government and the administration lack the will power to enforce rule of law. Road accidents are a regular phenomenon in Rajasthan and nobody takes any action against the guilty. There is no attempt to fix the responsibility either even after serious accidents,” Mr. Bhati said talking to this correspondent on phone from Bikaner.

“One road accident can devastate many families and nobody seems to care,” he said. “I could not stop myself after seeing so many injured persons in the hospital. The police and the Transport Department have proven ineffective in checking overloading and speeding on the roads which is claiming many lives daily,” said Mr. Bhati, a former Minister and convener of the now wound up Samajik Nyaya Manch (Social Justice Front) party, referring to the comments he made on camera after coming out of the hospital.

Mr. Bhati’s concern is understandable as he himself is an unfortunate victim of road accidents which have claimed both his sons -- one of whom, Mahendra Singh Bhati, was Member of Parliament from Bikaner -- but political observers consider his outburst as a manifestation of the growing distance between him and the BJP leadership in the State which is likely to cost the party dear in the coming elections in Bikaner division.

Monday’s rally did not find any support from the followers of Mr. Bhati, who is MLA for the sixth time from the adjoining Kolayat seat. When asked about his absence, Mr. Bhati said he was away to Pokhran to participate in a family function. In the absence of Mr. Bhati, the public response to the Monday rally remained lukewarm. Also to the discomfiture to Ms. Raje, there were not many Dalits among the crowd, which turned out at the rally held to mark the birth anniversary of B. R. Ambedkar.

Mr. Bhati’s reaction also assumes significance in the wake of some talk about Ms. Raje choosing one of the Bikaner urban seats for contesting the next Assembly election.

In the delimitation Bikaner is to be broken into Bikaner West—from where Congress leader B.D. Kalla is the sitting MLA—and Bikaner East, which has 50 per cent of the area carved out of Kolayat assembly constituency.

Sources in Bikaner ascribe Mr. Bhati’s drift from the BJP Government to non-fulfilment of the promise made to him at the time of his re-entry -- to make him a Minister. Mr. Bhati had quit the BJP prior to the 2003 elections protesting against the party’s indifference to the demand for providing reservation to poor persons from the forward castes. His return to the party fold in September 2007 was made a grand affair with Ms. Raje and other BJP leaders hailing it as “gaur vapasi” (homecoming).

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