Factionalism makes BJP MPs opt out of race

Similarly, certain BJP MPs, afraid of losing the elections due to non-performance, have rushed to the central leadership with a request to change their constituency. The party is likely to take a decision on such requests, by the first week of August, BJP sources said.

Former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj was the first to opt out of the elections. She was followed by outgoing MP from Outer Delhi K L Sharma. Party general secretary Sumitra Mahajan (Indore), S C Varma (Bhopal), Baburao Paranjape (Jabalpur) and Sartaj Singh (Hoshangabad) have followed suit.

Interestingly, those opting out so far are from only two states – Delhi and Madhya Pradesh — places where BJP is badly plagued by factionalism. The party apparently lost the Assembly elections in November last year due to internecine struggle between the factions led by former chief ministers Madan Lal Khurana and Sahib Singh Varma.

Sushma, then Delhi chief minister, herself managed to win her Hauz Khas Assembly seat by a slender margin. She has opted out of the fray, apparently to keep away from electoral politics due to intra-party intrigues.

Party vice president K L Sharma managed to win the Outer Delhi seat in 1998 with Sahib Singh’s support. But Singh wants to contest the seat himself this time, sending Sharma to look out for another safe seat. Similar reasons are being cited for BJP’s outgoing MPs from Madhya Pradesh.

Sumita Mahajan, a four-time MP, pulled herself out of electoral battle due to the games being played by local MLA Lakshman Singh Gaur and ex-MLA Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat. Similarly Sartaj Singh, Paranjape and Sushil Chandra Varma too were peeved by intra-party feuds in their respective constituencies, BJP sources claimed.

BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit had been witnessing squabbling between supporters of Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and State BJP president Raj Nath Singh, for the past two years until a truce was reached due to national general secretary Govindacharya’s intervention about two months ago. The party has been suffering similar factional wars in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bihar as well.

Another distressing factor was the flurry of requests from MPs to change their constituency, apparently due to the fear of losing. Most of such requests are from UP, that too from leaders who have been involved in the Ayodhya movement. BJP’s saffron-robed MPs Ram Vilas Vedanti, Swami Chinmayanand, Swami Sakshi Maharaj want to change their electoral arena this time.

Another BJP MP, D B Rai, who was SSP Faizabad when Babri Mosque was demolished in 1992, wants to contest from Jaunpur this time while Vinod Khanna wants a change of constituency from Gurdaspur to Mumbai.