Anil Anand
The writing was on the wall which perhaps the BJP veterans now members of the ‘Marghdarshak Mandal’ refused to read. Veterans such as L K Advani, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Mr Shanta and others thought the storm would be over soon but little did they realise the changing circumstances and that the BJP, the party which they had painstakingly nurtured, has ushered into a changed culture hitherto unknown.
The prevailing situation in BJP with respect to the sidelined veterans could be attributed to the generational shift that the party saw after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its chief Amit Shah started dominating the organisation. Ordinarily a generational change is a natural process for any political party and more so for BJP, however, if it amounts to humiliation and embarrassment to those responsible for its growth and that too if it happens in the run up to or during the Lok Sabha elections, it is bound to raise the heckles.
Beginning with the BJP patriarch Advani who along with late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been credited with carrying the party from 2 seats in Lok Sabha to current 282, the list includes yet another veteran Murli Manohar Joshi, who has also adequately contributed in building the organisation, Shanta Kumar, Kalraj Mishra, Ramesh Bais, B C Khanduri, Rajen Gohain, Bijoya Chakraborty and continues expanding. Firebrand former Finance and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha is already out of BJP and so is editor turned politician Arun Shourie, cine-star turned politician Shatrughan Sinha after denial of mandate has joined Congress and set to contest elections from Patna Sahab and both External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and saffron clad former Minister Uma Bharati have already opted out of the poll process.
It seems that Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan is heading towards the same fate and denial of mandate to her from Indore is likely.
As the process of candidate selection is almost over in BJP and Prime Minister Modi has already hit the campaign trail for the seven-phase elections with full might, it will be interesting to see if these veterans and not so veterans (who do not fall in the 75+ age cut off date fixed by Modi-Shah duo for denial of tickets), would wither away silently or still have the potential to make their presence felt. The two possible ways would be to revolt and contest elections either as independent candidates or on the ticket of some other political party, as done by Shatrughan Sinha, or become a rallying point within the BJP.
Would they or would not they adopt any of this course?
It is unlikely that Advani (91) who has nurtured the party and along with Vajpayee prepared the next generation of leaders including those who are currently ruling the country would take any drastic action at the twilight of his political career and life. However, the roughshod manner in which he was conveyed the party’s decision to declare his intention of not contesting elections, is the root cause of his hurt and a similar feeling has been expressed by others.
But would he be able to stop others from taking drastic steps as done by Shatrughan Sinha? The answer is no. But that does not suggest that efforts were not on to persuade him into breaking his silence at least and speak on the party matter at least.
Some indication of this was available from a recent interview of Shatrughan to a TV channel, after he met Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi as a precursor to joining the party. He admitted that he and others such as Yashwant Sinha were in regular touch with Advani and others. “I met him few weeks back and I was due to meet him before my calling on Rahul Gandhi along with Yashwantji but it did not happen as Yashwantji had sprained his ankle. So I will be meeting him soon to seek his blessings before joining Congress,” he remarked.
More interestingly Shatrughan was forthcoming when asked if Advani, Joshi and Shanta Kumar and others should contest elections as independent candidates to protest against the highhandedness and humiliation meted out to them, “Yes I strongly feel they should do that……” and he left it at that without clarifying whether he had broached this issue with Advani or Joshi.
Besides Advani, Shanta Kumar (85), Kalraj Mishra (77), Bhagat Singh Koshyari (77) Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri (76) and Bijoya Chakravorty (76) will not be contesting the Lok Sabha polls. Murli Manohar Joshi, who represents Kanpur Lok Sabha constituency which he had won by over two lakh votes in 2014, has also been left out. In 2014, he was shifted to Kanpur after the party decided to field Narendra Modi in Varanasi.
It goes to the credit of Shanta Kumar that he built the party network in Himachal Pradesh, has been representing Kangra constituency in the hill state and had been a multi-time former chief minister also. Mishra, the BJP’s prominent Brahmin face in Uttar Pradesh, represented Deoria in the current Lok Sabha after previously being a Rajya Sabha member. He was inducted into the Modi cabinet as micro, small and medium enterprises minister and had faced some tough moments before being dropped later on age grounds.
Hukmdev Narayan Yadav, who represents Madhubani in Bihar, is the recent recipient of the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award. He is the luckier one among the veterans as his desire to replace him by his son from the same constituency was fulfilled.
In the same vein octogenarian tribal MP from Jharkhand Kariya Munda has also been sidelined despite his wish to contest the election this time also. He too first entered the Lok Sabha in 1977 from Khunti and since 1989, he has been representing the seat continuously till 2014, barring only once in 2004 when he lost to Congress’s Sushila Kerkata.
The stranger story is that of Ramesh Bais who is credited with strengthening BJP in Chattisgarh. He is a seven time MP from the state’s capital Raipur and was also minister in the Vajpayee Government. Considered close to Sushma Swaraj he has been denied ticket this time despite not falling in the 75+ age bracket as he is 71 year old. He has been very vocal about omissions and commissions of the current BJP leadership and was said to have been penalised for the same reason.
Koshyari, a former chief minister of Uttarakhand and Minister in the Vajpayee government, currently represents Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar constituency. He also served as a Rajya Sabha MP. He is now out of reckoning along with another sitting MP from the state Khanduri. The latter’s son has since joined Congress and is contesting from his father’s constituency.
The trigger currently is Shatrughan Sinha as he has been more vocal out of the disgruntled lot. Till recently Yashwant Sinha was also acting in a similar fashion but he seems to have controlled his diatribe against Modi-Shah duo after his son and Union Minister Jayant Sinha was again fielded from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. Owing to this reason he is learnt to have dropped his plans to contest election from any other party or as an independent supported by other opposition parties as he wishes to devote more time to ensure his son’s victory. But that does not mean any reconciliation with the BJP leadership.
Ever since he fell out with the current leadership of the BJP precisely Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, cine star turned politician Shatrughan, the original Bihari Babu, has been persistent and unrelenting in venting is angst. His protestations grew louder as the cream of the almost defunct ‘Marghdarshak Mandal’ led by Modi, fell on the wayside not only because the body set up primarily to sideline and dump these veteran leaders could not hold even an inaugural meeting but for the fact that all these veterans after continuous humiliation have been conveyed point- blank to stay away from Lok Sabha elections. Meaning thereby end of the road for them so far as electoral politics is concerned or that the days of Advani-Joshi era are over.
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