BJP Gearing-up to Break Congress ‘Records’

  - D. Vishnumohan Rao

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which claims to be the most disciplined and democratic political party of the country had always criticised its key opponent Congress. It smashed volleys against Congress systems; eventually it is now racing ahead to break the records set earlier by the Congress.

What a strategic shift, it is the test of time who holds how much water and how long.

Congress had been, as a tradition and culture, changing the Chief Minister of any state whenever there was a negative voting pattern either in the by-election or during the elections to the local bodies of the concerned state. During the regime of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, she created a record by shuffling five Chief Ministerial candidates in one assembly term of five years.

Now, it is the time for Bharatiya Janata Party to add and subtract personalities for the Chief Minister’s post in various states. People believe that BJP is gearing and heading to break the record of the Congress shuffle game. The latest citation can be had from discarding Keshu Bhai Patel and placing Narendra Damodar Das Modi as Chief Minister of Gujarat.

If we look back once, the BJP had time and again criticised the Congress stating that it was humiliating the Constitution and the democracy of the country with the shuffling of the Chief Ministers. The list of persons who shed the crocodile tears regarding this issue included Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. It is in fact a sorry state and shameful affair on part of the BJP to follow the ‘said’ humiliating procedure on its own.

Bhuj tremors rocked Bhai’s fort?

A doubt is raised whether the tremors of the Bhuj earthquake of March 2001 continued to show their impact and rocked and battered the senior BJP leader and Chief Minister Keshu Bhai Patel’s fort. A clear fact surfaces that people of the state were annoyed with the failure of Keshu Bhai’s government in organising the relief operations properly.

A general opinion is spread in people after his dismissal from the throne that Keshu Bhai and his government were absolutely dumb in taking care of people and drastically failed to provide them basic facilities during the post earthquake period. BJP top brass must have dethroned him carrying an opinion that he was inexperienced to face such situations. Another thought was also expressed that it was only his incapacity to handle the situation that diluted his image in the people.

Keshu Bhai and his corrupted coterie

Immediately after Keshu Bhai Patel sworn in as Chief Minister of Gujarat, a strong allegation was passed out by the state’s minister for Jails and rural housing. The comment was that Keshu is surrounded by a coterie that is totally corrupted. The comment’s ripples vibrated through the BJP spine. People of the state and the country were taken aback about the charges levelled by a minister against a chief minister. Leaders of the party probed into the comment thoroughly. Their investigations brought many issues to their notice. Gradual decline of the image of the Chief Minister and the party reputation in the state, excessive and unwanted expenditure, promulgating unwarranted sales tax concessions to the tune of Rs 4,118 crore and the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report against such sops infuriated the probing team of BJP leaders. Observers state that these factors also added fuel to the dethroning fire.

BJP bowled over in by-polls

People of Sabarmathi assembly and Sabarkantha parliament segments discarded the BJP candidates in the recent by-elections. Their support to Congress, according to BJP observers, was literally against the ruling pattern of Keshu Bhai Patel and nothing else. This concept is added with another near future happening. By one and a half years down the line, general elections are approaching to the Gujarat state assembly. There was no other go to the BJP leaders except to change the legislative party leadership and replace Keshu Bhai with a better candidate. This was to stabilise the dropping popularity of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state and then to strengthen the party cadres within this short period.

The result of all these factors showered as boon to Narendra Modi, who was named the Chief Minister.

Why Modi not someone else?

High command of the Bharatiya Janata Party crowned Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister successor to Keshu Bhai Patel. Narendra Damodar Das Modi is more popular as a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Organiser than a politician. He never contested any election till date. His candidature is sported as clean both in the RSS and in the BJP cadres. Modi was taken to be one of the foundation stones for the BJP to grow strength to strength in Gujarat. He was never given an opportunity, besides the party positions, to hold any nominated or official position all through his career with the RSS and BJP. Of course, people grade him to be moving close to them and the party cadres. In addition to this he never faced any charges levelled against him from any quarter either in or out of the party. Analysts say that all the qualities summed up made Modi more ‘feasible’ and ‘right’ candidate for the position, especially to take care of the outcomes of the ousting of Keshu Bhai Patel.

Shambling the CMs, not a new sport to BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party is not playing the game of changing the Chief Ministers for the first time. Earlier, the BJP high command dethroned Saheb Singh Verma from the Delhi Chief Minister’s seat and placed Madanlal Khurana. Khurana was replaced with Sushma Swaraj taking into consideration of the inactive and non-constructive (towards the benefit of the party) role of Khurana.

Later, the Delhi assembly was snatched away by the Congress from BJP as the latter succumbed to the ‘Onion pungency’. Later, the BJP top ‘hands and brains’ dropped Kalyan Singh from the Chief Minister’s seat into the nearest wastebasket replacing him with Ram Prakash Gupta. Immediately after Gupta took over BJP suffered a major set back in the local body elections in Uttar Pradesh. Nothing new happened then. Gupta was swept off and youth wing leader Raj Nath Singh was made the Chief Minister.

Now, in Gujarat it is Suresh Mehtha, Keshu Bhai Patel and Narendra Modi in the chronological order of history chart of the Chief Minister’s who served as Chief Ministers.

In all, the BJP had successfully played the sport in three states by appointing three Chief Ministers successively. With these records in hand, BJP is gearing up, not a single word uttered and the message conveyed loud and clear, for breaking the Congress record of shuffling the Chief Ministers at states.

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