BJP cadres openly upset over induction of 'outsiders'

Party says inducting rival party leaders will be its strategy in Bihar, West Bengal as well

The selection of candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls has left several local BJP leaders and workers mighty upset. Irate supporters of disgruntled leaders who were denied a ticket protested outside the Delhi BJP office on Tuesday. Supporters of BJP Delhi chief Satish Upadhyay protested at the party’s Delhi unit office. Over a dozen people shouted slogans against the BJP leadership for denying Upadhyay a ticket. He tried to pacify them, telling them it was his decision to opt out of contesting.

Supporters of Delhi BJP Vice-President Shikha Rai also vent their anger at the party not fielding her as a candidate. There were protests in other parts of Delhi by supporters local leaders denied tickets. There is open discontent for the party giving tickets to Congress leader Krishna Tirath from Patel Nagar, who joined the BJP hours before the candidate list was announced.

BJP strategists, however, said the decision to accommodate “outsiders” of repute was a natural process of transition for the BJP from a cadre-based to a mass party. It is a process, party insiders say, that will gather speed in the coming months to bolster its strength in states scheduled to go for Assembly polls by mid-2016.

Bihar is to go to polls by end-2015. West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry and Kerala Asemblies end their term by mid-2016. BJP sources claim that there were at least four ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government willing to cross over. Last week, Trinamool minister Manjul Krishna Thakur quit the Bengal cabinet to join BJP. Similarly, party leaders have been reaching out to key Dalit leaders in Bihar, including Chief Minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi.

On Monday, party President Amit Shah defended the BJP Parliamentary Board decision to have former Indian Police Service officer Kiran Bedi as the party’s chief ministerial candidate. He recounted Bedi’s several accomplishments in public life, and also pointed out how there was a precedence to this when the party appointed Major General (retired) B C Khanduri its Uttarakhand chief minister. BJP gave key posts to ‘outsiders’ like Jaswant Singh in 1980s and Yashwant Sinha in early 1990s.

“We welcome people from outside who believe in the ideology of the party. This will strengthen the party,” Shrikant Sharma, BJP national secretary, said. Party strategists also point out how the BJP was currently in the process of transition. The BJP, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, has launched an ambitious party membership programme to become the largest political party on the planet, with an estimated 100 million registered members.

But such weighty arguments in favour of giving key positions to “outsiders” has failed to convince local BJP leaders. Party has fielded ex-Aam Aadmi Party leader M S Dhir from Jangpura and AAP discard Vinod Kumar Binni from Patparganj by rejecting claims of party youth leaders. There were protests in all these constituencies after the candidates were announced.

Party sources termed the disaffection as “media propaganda”, claiming that as many as 13 candidates were from the student and youth wings of the party, including Nupur Sharma who has been fielded against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.