BJP drops Judeo in a hurry

Senior leaders admit a serious setback to party's clean image

Hours after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee landed here last night after his week-long tour from abroad, the Bharatiya Janata Party's leadership launched an 'operation salvage' and asked for the resignation of Minister of State for Environment Dilip Singh Judeo to insulate the PM from the after-effects of the controversy.

The Congress said a mere resignation was not enough and demanded Judeo be prosecuted.

However ,Vajpayee immediately forwarded the resignation to President APJ Abdul Kalam for acceptance and later announced that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would enquire into the charge.

In Raipur, Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh disclosed the news of Judeo's resignation, but insisted that he was an honest man who fell prey to a conspiracy hatched by the Congress.

In a crucial meeting at the prime minister's Race Course Road residence this morning, there was a unanimity that though Judeo's resignation was unavoidable, he must be defended to the hilt to check demoralisation of the BJP cadres.

That the party leadership directed Judeo to put in his papers was also a part of well-considered strategy to save the prime minister from being attacked by the Congress.

Vajpayee was being accused of protecting a "corrupt minister" by all Opposition parties.

However, as a measure of caution, Judeo's name was dropped from the BJP's list of leaders who would be asked to tour Chhattisgarh.

Former BJP president, Bangaru Laxman, who resigned from the post after the Tehelka incident, pleaded that Judeo not be turned into a Bangaru clone.

Immediately after the meeting, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu said the minister had resigned in tune with the BJP's tradition of maintaining high moral standards in public life.

"What about Jogi who is accused of forging documents?" Naidu asked while levelling the charge that the Congress was responsible for framing-up "honest persons like Judeo through dubious methods".

However in the meeting, senior party leaders admitted that the whole episode was a serious setback to the BJP's image of being a party with a difference and demoralised cadres on the poll-eve.

Those involved in the campaigning in Chattisgarh also advised the party leadership not to get into the "defensive mode" at the moment in view of the state polls.

But senior party leaders held the view that the episode must be contained before it spirals into a national controversy reflecting on performance of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government.

In fact, Judeo's resignation from the council of minister appeared a forgone conclusion immediately after the arrival of the prime minister. Vajpayee, who was learnt to have been briefed by Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani and Naidu on the issue gave clear indication that the minister had to go.

But the party's central leadership was quite worried over the impact the whole issue would have on assembly elections in Chattisgarh and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.

After a series of deliberations at the top level, the considered view of the party leadership was to defend Judeo and blame Jogi for hatching a conspiracy to malign Judeo, the "man of integrity".

The BJP's aggressive strategy is evolved after the assessment that the whole episode would have little impact in the tribal belt of Chattisgarh where Judeo exercises influence in certain pockets.

BJP sources feel that after Judeo's resignation, he could be easily projected as a "victim of conspiracy" by Christian missionaries against whom Judeo had been waging a consistent war in his home district-Jashpur.

Judeo is known for his reconversion drive of bringing back converted Christian tribals to the Hindu fold. Sources point out that the whole issue would give Judeo's campaign managers a leverage to polarise the electorate on religious lines and put Jogi in the dock.

The BJP's "operation salvage" is also expected to encomass a move to intensify personalised attack against Jogi and his son Amit Jogi in order to raise the pitch of the campaign .

"The mood of Chattisgarh's electorate is against Jogi and we wish to capitalise it by highlighting his acts of omission and commission" say highly placed sources in the BJP.