Is the BJP really anywhere close to sorting out the vexed leadership issue in the organisation? The leaked report of Justice Liberhan on the BJP’s role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid has banded party leaders together and has even got the RSS to support them, but the pact is a pragmatic and temporary deal. It has been six months since the leadership issue exploded on the party in June 2009, but the party is still in the throes of a fierce power struggle with the central leaders out to assert their supremacy in the organisation, even as the BJP’s ideological seminary, the RSS, pronounces its authority in the choice of the party president.
And so, the RSS made its choice clear last week, that the new BJP president will be none other than Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra state chief, much to the consternation of the top BJP leadership in Delhi, from L K Advani, to his close lieutenants, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar. Although seen as rivals, the central leaders with the tacit blessings of Advani closed ranks to challenge the RSS, and began to be called the Delhi Four or D-4, to regain their status and dominion. So where does it leave all the players today? A guide to the twists and turns of the leaders, their pronouncements, and what they really mean:
Mohan Rao Bhagwat: The RSS chief or Sarsanghchalak has had a dream run ever since he was beseeched to intervene when the Jaswant Singh episode blew on the BJP’s face, wherein the expelled leader vengefully went public on the RSS and the BJP leadership’s duplicity and cowardice. Despite the embarrassment, to Bhagwat’s delight, BJP leaders including Advani trooped to Jhandewalan (RSS headquarters in Delhi) seeking advice and counsel, all in public glare, and Bhagwat played his role of high priest to the hilt. The controversy finally died down, but not only did it blow the lid on the RSS-BJP umbilical link, Bhagwat also wanted to be canonised, and there was no stopping him.
Instead of retreating to Nagpur, the RSS sanctum, and reverting to the so-called cultural activities, a fervent Bhagwat plunged into the BJP’s organisational matters by making preposterous statements such like: “None of the Delhi-based leaders would become party president” to “L K Advani will quit according to the schedule agreed by him” — thereby asserting his supremacy for all to see. Bhagwat has certainly won this round.
Sushma Swaraj: The feisty BJP deputy leader of Lok Sabha has declared that L K Advani, will continue to be Leader of the Opposition, for as long as he wishes, to attest her loyalty and support for the beleaguered veteran leader, who is being hounded by the RSS to resign. But she is quite clear about her position vis-à-vis Advani if he finally quits going by her recent outburst two days ago. Swaraj suddenly went public saying she was offered the party president’s post but she declined it as Advani had already chosen her to be his deputy in the Lok Sabha, setting the succession line-up in Parliament.
Is Swaraj paying heed to Advani’s declaration that it is only the LoP of the Lok Sabha, not even Rajya Sabha, who is the natural leader to lead the party in an election? Swaraj has never been keen on organisational work, and has opted to be party spokesperson rather than involve herself in the nitty-gritty of organisational work. She has assiduously modelled herself on Atal Behari Vajpayee, to become the face of the BJP, rather than be a backroom leader. And she knows the rejuvenating effects of parliamentary life — it has brought her from near oblivion back on centrestage again. It was with annoyance and pique that she insisted along with BJP leaders that the RSS must set the record straight on Bhagwat’s acid remarks about D4 — she wanted to correct the lopsided public perception about herself and her colleagues. Will Swaraj succeed like Vajpayee to become the natural BJP choice for primeministership among allies’ remains to be seen.
Arun Jaitley: The BJP general-secretary has been the darling of the media much to the consternation of his colleagues in the D-4, and even outgoing party chief Rajnath Singh has complained bitterly about the alleged ‘plants’ of a vicious media campaign against him, pointing fingers at Jaitley. However, Jaitley has been taking it easy, neither ruffling feathers in the RSS, where he has a convivial and sympathetic relationship, nor overtly challenging or staking claim to any privilege or post. Unlike Swaraj, Jaitley has been an organisation man, chalking out strategies for organisation and polls. He has been glowingly referred to as the man who can win elections for the party, as his admirers never fail to point out.
Jaitley has also openly come out against moneybags in the party, with his infamous bout with businessman Sudanshu Mittal, but he has been strangely quiet on the Reddy Brothers of Bellary, who had held Karnataka CM to ransom. Jaitley even lost the round in reining in the Reddy Brothers, it was a benign Swaraj who blessed them and got their loyalty, however, Jaitley can bask in the comfort that there will hardly be any scandal that could hit his face and scuttle his chances. Swaraj, on the other hand, saw how the Romesh Sharma slander had scorched her chances earlier.
Venkaiah Naidu: The BJP’s motor-mouth with his silly limericks and poesy, has been the most touchy with the RSS chief’s disdain for the D-4. After all, Naidu has made a business of being known in the Capital after he finished his term as party president four years ago, and he was not going to allow the Bhagwat to make him irrelevant again. So, it was a belligerent Naidu who trotted off to Nagpur to convey the resentment brewing within the party about the appointment of Gadkari and the RSS chief’s declaration that the new president will not be from among the Delhi Four. Naidu was outspoken when he told Bhagwat that the D-4 felt ‘humiliated’ when they had served the BJP all these years.
Though the RSS cleared the air that the Sangh Parivar had nothing against the D-4, it had clearly stoked the intense factional feud among BJP leaders, even as the Sangh’s preference for Gadkari continued to remain unchanged.
It was a still smarting Naidu who issued a statement two days ago saying that though the BJP and RSS shared an ideological bond, the former was independent and autonomous, that the RSS’ choice of Gadkari is not the BJP’s top choice, and that though his name is doing the rounds for president’s post, he is not interested in the job. But imagine, poor Naidu’s fate would been orbited in oblivion without the clarification, as he has no post in organisation or Parliament. The favour-seekers would have banished him forever.
Ananth Kumar: The Karnataka leader and former Union minister has so been an appendage to Jaitley, and he shot into the spotlight only because he was part of the cabal of D-4. Ever since, he has been tailing Jaitley, and has been spotted yet again right through the Karnataka crisis brought on by the Bellary Brothers. He has not said anything so far, and has nothing much to say either.
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