After brandishing Yadav, BJP can’t hide him now

The brutal murder of Nitish Katara, in which his son, Vikas, is an accused, is still fresh in public memory.

The top leadership apart, Yadav will come up against the BJP campaign committee chairman Kalyan Singh in his campaign for a party ticket. Yadav was among the four UP legislators who were put behind the bars by Kalyan Singh under NSA during his chief ministership in 1991. With Kalyan Singh being given almost a free hand in running the UP unit, Yadav might not get far.

The state unit is resenting his entry. Law Minister Arun Jaitley, who was to brief the media on another issue, refused to share the dais with Yadav. This, while the entire state leadership, including Kalyan Singh, Agriculture Minister Rajnath Mishra, Kalraj Mishra and Vinay Katiyar were away at a Varanasi rally .

‘‘Yadav has not been given any post…Before clearing the decision to admit him, I enquired if any case is pending against him. I was told no case is pending against him,’’ party president Venkaiah Naidu said. Naqvi, on the other hand, said Yadav would have to stick by the BJP’s rules as a member. ‘‘The BJP is a deep ocean. Many big and small rivers and dirty nullahs flow in to it and become the ocean. BJP ki dhara mein behna padta hai (Everybody has to flow with the party),’’ he said.

Naqvi dodged when a reporter sought to know if the BJP would admit sandalwood smuggler Veerappan too. He sought to reduce the damage by stating, ‘‘We have not admitted a person named Vikas Yadav (son of D.P. Yadav) in to our party.’’

The Congress charged the BJP with ‘‘compromise on all principles to retain power’’. Party leader Kapil Sibal said: ‘‘There are cases of murder, kidnapping, hooliganism and others against Yadav. The BJP says they had inducted Yadav to ensure a level playing field in UP and in Bihar.’’

‘‘The Congress wants to know is this their way of countering criminalisation is with the help of criminals? The BJP should just admit openly that they do not have any principles and can do anything to be in power,’’ Sibal said.