New team can146;t seal old cracks

Far from quelling differences within the party, BJP president L.K. Advani8217;s much-awaited 8216;8216;new team8217;8217; 8212; partic...

Far from quelling differences within the party, BJP president L.K. Advani8217;s much-awaited 8216;8216;new team8217;8217; 8212; particularly the exclusion of firebrand sanyasin Uma Bharati 8212; has brought to the fore fresh faultlines in the party, threatening to escalate not only the ongoing rivalry among 8216;8216;second-rung8217;8217; leaders but also tensions between the RSS and the BJP.

Advani8217;s image of an 8216;8216;iron man8217;8217;, who would take everyone on board, also received a severe dent when, after several rounds of protracted negotiations over three days, he failed to project a united team.

The most serious evidence of this was Bharati8217;s exclusion to join the team. While there was no official reason given for her exclusion, party circles were abuzz with contradictory theories, all of which underlined the turmoil in the BJP.

Bharati8217;s supporters claim she refused to come on board because Pramod Mahajan was being retained as general secretary. Sources said Bharati argued with the party leadership that Mahajan should be dropped because the party had lost in both UP and Maharashtra under his charge. The way Mahajan mocked her 8216;8216;Tiranga Yatra8217;8217; also added to the sanyasin8217;s ire.

Bharati8217;s detractors, however, insist the real reason she has been kept out is that the leadership was in no mood to indulge her anymore. 8216;8216;She wanted to be made general secretary in-charge of MP, she wanted to become secretary of the Central Election Committee, and for once she could not throw a tantrum and have her way,8217;8217; a BJP functionary said. M. Venkaiah Naidu 8212; still smarting from the 8216;8216;abuses8217;8217; hurled at him by Bharati 8212; was apparently keen that she not be made general secretary.

The Bharati versus Mahajan drama has begun to acquire 8216;8216;ideological dimensions8217;8217; as well. According to sources, RSS leaders were keen that Mahajan be dropped from the team because he symbolised 8216;8216;all that has gone wrong with the BJP in their years in power8217;8217;. The lifestyle of many BJP leaders has changed over the years, but Mahajan remains the poster boy of 8216;8216;five star culture8217;8217;.

As a former RSS pracharak said, 8216;8216;The Sangh wanted the BJP to make an example of Mahajan. If Advani is serious about going back to the basics, he must do more than make a visit to Nagpur. You cannot talk of the need to change behaviour and lifestyle and yet keep Mahajan.8221;

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Mahajan, on the other hand, feels the RSS bogey is being raised by his own rivals in the party. Bharati, his supporters feel, is working at the behest of rivals like Arun Jaitley.

That apart, Advani8217;s new team was lacklustre with almost all the old faces who served under Naidu. The only new general secretary was Ananth Kumar, and only new vice-president Kishan Singh Sangwan. Other notable entrants were Sudheendra Kulkarni as secretary, and Varun Gandhi, Najma Heptulla and a host of ex-ministers and ex-Governors in the 8216;8216;new8217;8217; national executive.

The party8217;s decision to make Madan Lal Khurana only a national executive member and not vice-president is also likely to cause fissures, sources said.