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Mail Today, New Delhi, Monday, May 17, 2010 COMMENT 11 POWER & POLITICS PRABHU CHAWLA AM not the betting kind, but ARYA PRAHARAJ if for a change, I were to indulge in it, I’d put some Ministers’ money on the next bizarre thing that could happen in the BJP. I have come to this scramble Iconclusion after watching over the past few months, a series of extraor- for the RS dinary happenings in the main Opposition party. It’s been six WITH THE Election Commis- months since Nitin Gadkari took sion announcing June 11 as over as the party president and the date for elections to fill 57 promised to take the BJP back to Rajya Sabha seats, time is its glory days. As an outsider from running out for some high profile ministers who may Nagpur, he was said to be the most start to feel the employment qualified man for the job, unbe- pinch. Anand Sharma’s term holden to any faction and uncor- in the Rajya Sabha has rupted by the dirty intra-party already ended and those of fights that frequently erupted in the Ambika Soni and Jairam Central office. Gadkari was seen as Ramesh are ending by July. the party’s best — and last bet. Has Accommodating three Union the chance slipped by already? ministers is a huge task for All pointers suggest yes. Two months ago, the Congress. Last week, when Gadkari appointed a new a senior Union minister from team of 121 office-bearers Tamil Nadu met Sonia that included 13 vice- Gandhi, she gave a clear hint presidents, 10 general that only loyal workers will be secretaries 15 secretaries sent to the Rajya Sabha."You and a treasurer. Barring can suggest, and I welcome it, the last, no one still has a but please do not insist that clue what he is supposed A,B or C should be accommo- to do since there has been no allocation of work. dated or X,Y and Z should be Many states, including kept out" was Sonia’s blunt crucial ones such as Bihar reply to the minister. are going to polls in the It’s almost certain that Soni next few months, but Vijender Gupta will get one of the two seats there is no central elec- that are up for grabs in Pun- tion committee in place yet. Normally, the jab but ensuring seats for presidents of state units are elected before Jairam and Anand is going be the national president is chosen, but here to a tough task for the Con- we have seen the reverse happening. And gress leadership. The two are Gadkari’s choice of party chiefs for the Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh as different as chalk and units don’t exactly inspire confidence cheese. Jairam talks and talks among the rank and file. and talks, while Anand main- Delhi was once the BJP’s pocketborough tains a low profile while qui- but after three successive defeats to Sheila Not quite etly going about his job. In the Dikshit, the party seems to have lost the latter's case, the Congress is will to fight. What else could explain the now said to be exploring elevation of little known Vijender Gupta as options in Rajasthan since in the Delhi BJP chief? His only claim to fame Haryana, which was also is that he was trounced by Kapil Sibal in looked at as an option, Con- the Lok Sabha elections. Similarly, not even gress MLAs don’t seem to be hardcore Gadkari fans think that Surya very eager. It is after a long Pratap Shahi in Uttar Pradesh and Prab- time that state legislators are hat Jha in Madhya Pradesh are the the one openly defying the authority panacea for the party’s ills in the two big states. of the high command to make One of Gadkari’s first pro- combine. With 25 MPs, Mulayam SP and the RJD away and got known their preferences for In Bihar, the tussle between nouncements after being and Lalu command the support the motions defeated. Subse- warring factions ended with C.P. the Rajya Sabha. elected to office late last year of just about a fifth of the BJP’s quently, the two supported the These are the first signs that Thakur being appointed party was that he won’t allow himself strength in the Lok Sabha. government on the nuclear lia- chief. He appears to be the best to be remote controlled. Yet Yet it is the two Yadavs who bility Bill. the AICC is losing its grip over choice, but the likes of deputy that is precisely what is happen- seem to dictate the agenda and Led by two highly individualis- the state units. The Andhra chief minister Sushil Modi and ing. The oligarchy that’s held with whom the government tic and egoistic leaders, the par- Congress is dead set against Rajiv Pratap Rudy are said to be the party in a vise-like grip for chooses to enter into dialogue ties united on a mission and renominating Jairam and one raising the banner of revolt. The the past 20 years continues to and discussions. found a slogan. The BJP has nei- of the reasons is said to be that party’s daily flip-flops in Jhark- call the shots, knowing that All decisions taken in the ther. Its leaders are happy flit- he showed disrespect by not hand would have been comical Gadkari is yet to negotiate his recent past seem aimed at pla- ting from one TV studio to turning up for the funeral of if the matter weren’t so serious. way through the bad, bad ways cating the voluble Yadavs. When another to run the government the late chief minister Y.S. Gadkari was tasked with dis- of New Delhi politics. With the they protested against the down when they should have Rajasekhara Reddy. All covering the Advanis, Modis, main opposition too busy fight- women’s reservation Bill, the been doing the job in Parlia- Reddy MLAs, it is being said, Shekhawats, Mahajans and ing its own internal battles, it government chose to put it on ment. The party which once will skip the voting on June 11. Uma Bharatis of the future. has no time to take on the gov- the back-burner after getting it took the lead in setting the tone Instead BJP cadres are livid ernment. Is it any wonder that passed in the Rajya Sabha. for debate, it seems, is yet to Chief minister K. Rosaiah, that Gadkari is persisting with the government takes demands When the Right and the Left recover from the debris of back who is just about settling in the Brahminical hierarchy in the from its allies and other sup- joined hands to move cut to back electoral debacles. With office after months of initial party both at the Centre and in porters more seriously? motions on the finance Bill, the an Opposition such as this, who turmoil may find himself run- the states. Contrast this with the Yadav government quietly weaned the needs allies? ning into turbulence again. THERE was a time when the only por- SO MANMOHAN Singh has finally traits hung in ministerial chambers in decided to go public, even if it Lutyens’ Delhi were those of the President means getting damned. Next Mon- Who is afraid of the big and the Prime Minister. But times have day, the Prime Minister will address changed and where once a minister served what is only his second formal in the cabinet at the pleasure of the prime press conference is six years. Nor- minister, in today's coalition set up, it is no bad press conference? more the PM's prerogative to pick his cabi- mally, the news would have fol- net colleagues. They are imposed on the lowed his press conference, but Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was once accompanied Suman Dubey, prime minister chosen by regional chief- the very fact that the announce- tains whose support is necessary to prop ment of the event itself was consid- among the most popular prime then India Today managing editor ministers, kept the press at arm’s and Sumit Mitra, Special Corre- up the government. The changed power ered breaking news by TV channels equations are reflected on the walls of min- says a lot about our democracy. We length. Ironically, it was Indira spondent to attend one of her isterial rooms. The rooms of DMK minis- elect our politicians to work for Gandhi whose contempt for the news conferences. Mitra asked her: ters have photographs of poet saint Thiru- us and they cannot claim to be press was legendary, who "Madam, how do you assess the valluvar and Karunanidhi. In the office private citizens and ask to be regularly met the press. performance of your (Congress) room of S.S. Palanimanickam, there is a left alone, however unpopu- Like millions of Indians, the general secretaries?" She assumed huge photo of Murasoli Maran with the lar a government may be. media too rejoiced when she that the question was specifically words Ennude Gurunathan (My Guru) And Manmohan is not an was voted out in the 1977 elec- about Rajiv Gandhi who had just inscribed and I am told that on entering tions and after her triumphant completed a year as a party his office, the minister actually stands in unpopular ruler like, say, front of the portrait with folded hands for George W. Bush. Yet, even as return in 1980, she was widely GenSec. expected to shun the press.

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