A clash of titans and young Turks

The Bharatiya Janata Party is desperate to form a government in Delhi, but its attempts to cobble together the requisite numbers keep hitting a roadblock. Pushed on the backfoot after the Aam Aadmi Party’s sting involving Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president Sher Singh Dagar, bitter party functionaries are now busy blaming the current mess on the undue interference by its senior leaders. Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley are among those who are said to be keeping close tabs on developments on the ground from their offices.

Ms Swaraj has an old link with the capital — she served briefly as Delhi Chief Minister, and Mr Jaitley is familiar with politics in the capital since his student days at Delhi University. While BJP vice-president Prabhat Jha has a legitimate reason to monitor government formation as he is in-charge of Delhi, his predecessor and former party president Nitin Gadkari refuses to let go. Mr Gadkari apparently has not gotten over his brief stint as Delhi in-charge for last year’s Assembly polls, when he persuaded the party to project Harsh Vardhan as the party’s chief ministerial candidate.

In addition to the seniors, former chief of the BJP’s Delhi unit Vijay Goel, who was eased out to make place for Dr Vardhan, remains a player as he continues to nurse chief ministerial aspirations though he’s not in the race. Having taken over recently as Delhi BJP chief, Satish Upadhyaya is also said to be flexing his muscles. For the BJP, the Delhi imbroglio is turning out to be a classic case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.

Clearly agitated over the Bharatiya Janata Party’s growing popularity in her home state, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee never loses an opportunity to launch a scathing attack on the BJP. However, the strident tone adopted by her in public is in sharp contrast to her private interactions with BJP ministers. Ms Banerjee is said to be at her charming best then and literally smothers them with her hospitality. The BJP’s VIP visitors are plied with the best Bengali sweets and snacks and even presented with sets of kurta-pyjamas.

According to one version, Ms Banerjee explained that she has no personal differences with the BJP leaders but she had no option but to take on their party due to local political compulsions. The reason for Ms Banerjee’s show of “split personality” is understandable. She has to criticise the BJP in order to protect her political turf. On the other hand, she has to curry favour with the Centre because of the ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the Saradha chit fund scam which has implicated several Trinamool MPs and sullied the chief minister’s reputation.

Ever since a group of 16 Congress secretaries or Young Turks (as they are being called) wrote a letter to all party seniors asking them not to air their views in public, the party has been in the grip of a frenzied guessing game about who’s the brain behind this sudden move. Although several leaders have openly derided Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and his advisers for their poor handling of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, this is the first time in three months that there has been a conscious and concerted move to counter these critics.

According to the buzz in the party, this exercise, conducted with the blessings of the party leadership, was orchestrated by Mr Gandhi’s close advisers and favourites, who include Congress general secretary Madhusudan Mistry, Congress vice-president and ideologue Mohan Gopal and former minister Jairam Ramesh. All of them have a vested interest in taking on the seniors as they have also been at the receiving end along with Congress vice-president. The trio is also learnt to have got a helping hand from Priyanka Vadra, who is said to have operated through her secretary Priti Sahay.

Shortly after Ram Madhav, media in-charge at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was deputed to the Bharatiya Janata Party, there was strong speculation that the suave and articulate young leader could be given a Rajya Sabha seat. Mr Madhav would have proved to be an asset to the party in the Upper House where it does not enjoy a majority. When BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Kaptan Singh Solanki from Madhya Pradesh was appointed Haryana governor, there was talk that
Mr Madhav would be picked to fill up the vacant seat. After all, Madhya Pradesh has a tradition of accommodating outsiders.

Journalist Chandan Mitra and Union ministers Najma Heptulla and Prakash Javadekar have entered the Rajya Sabha courtesy Madhya Pradesh. But this time BJP state leaders protested as they were in no mood to host another outsider. The BJP leadership had to eventually give in to their demand  that the seat should go to a state leader. Eventually, the party chose its senior leader Meghraj Jain for the Rajya Sabha bypoll in Madhya Pradesh.

Mr Jain may be much older than Mr Madhav, but they have something in common: both come from the RSS talent pool.

The writer is a Delhi-based journalist