On shaky ground, Rajnath blames 145;crumbling structure146;

A Crestfallen BJP President Rajnath Singh today blamed the 8220;crumbling organisational structure8221; of the state unit for the Uttar Pradesh debacle...

A Crestfallen BJP President Rajnath Singh today blamed the 8220;crumbling organisational structure8221; of the state unit for the Uttar Pradesh debacle, as senior party leaders L K Advani and Jaswant Singh watched their dreams of posing a serious challenge to the forthcoming presidential elections fade away. The only saving grace was that even the charisma of the Nehru-Gandhi family, with Rahul Gandhi at the forefront, was unable to revive the fortunes of the Congress in the state.

When the UP election results were going against the BJP, Rajnath Singh met Advani and Jaswant Singh in Parliament and sought directions from the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha on what the party8217;s explanation for the resounding defeat after the Parliamentary Board meeting should be. The virtually high-flying Venkaiah Naidu, UP election in-charge, and Anant Kumar, who was also handling the campaign in UP, were also present in the meeting.

On being told that the BJP was leading in only 55 seats, Rajnath Singh said: 8220;Party ka dhancha to charmaraya hua tha.8221; It was after expressing his disappointment that Advani prepared a short statement for the media, which talked of the 8220;unexpected results8221; for the BJP and the voter reposing faith in the BSP, as they felt it was only Mayawati who could take on the ruling SP. But everyone in the meeting knew that the party had totally alienated the Brahmin vote due to the strong projection of its thakur leader Rajnath Singh. And it was this vote that had en-masse gone to Mayawati.

Advani, however, made it clear that everybody should stick to the statement and that nobody should speak out of turn after the Parliamentary Board meeting. The Leader of the Opposition felt that the recent electoral ascent of the party in Punjab and Uttarakhand had been halted by the UP debacle, and that the party had to be doubly prepared for the forthcoming Goa and Gujarat elections. The leadership is anxious about Goa as the current party in-charge Rajiv Pratap Rudy has to prove himself.

The UP Assembly result came as a tight slap for the BJP as the top leadership was in the midst of mounting a serious challenge to the ruling UPA in the forthcoming presidential polls. Before the results were out, Advani and Jaswant Singh were working hard at the electoral college figures. The initial estimates showed that the NDA and allies could muster a total of 5,42,733 votes as compared to the 5,36,973 votes with the UPA and allies. Mayawati party tally was assumed at its previous count of 90.

The figures went topsy-turvy after Mayawati added another 110 seats to her kitty as the electoral weightage of both the BJP and the SP dropped in comparison when the results came out. The new calculations showed that Mayawati had the key to the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the UPA and allies stood at least 30,000 electoral votes ahead of the NDA and allies. The presumption being that Mayawati would support the UPA8217;s presidential candidate. It was here that the BJP leadership realised Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, a Dalit leader from Maharashtra, could emerge as a strong candidate from the UPA.