Pyrrhic victory

The manner in which Kalraj Mishra was unanimously elected president of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP does not show the party in a good...

The manner in which Kalraj Mishra was unanimously elected president of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP does not show the party in a good light. If anything, his election proves that it is the writ of the high command that runs in the party. According to his own version, Mishra would not have filed his nomination but for the directive he received from Delhi. This is quite self-explanatory. The BJP has always claimed that it is the most democratic of all parties. Had this claim been true, there would have been no need to ask Mishra to step into the election arena. The high command was anxious, not so much to get Mishra elected, as to deny Ram Prakash Tripathi the post. It was Tripathi8217;s candidature and his potential to win the contest that unnerved the party leadership. All efforts were, therefore, made to force Tripathi to withdraw. The leadership even went to the extent of extending the deadline for the withdrawal of nominations. When all the bigwigs in the state BJP lined up behind Mishra 8212; who has heldthe post for three consecutive terms 8212; Tripathi must have either lost hope or realised that discretion was the better part of valour. As this electoral tamasha was beingstaged in Lucknow, the ordinary workers of the BJP must have wondered whether the heavens would have fallen if Tripathi was allowed to contest.

Apparently, the contest would have exposed the divisions within the state unit, something the high command wanted to prevent. Mishra8217;s election does not make sense from the point of view of caste arithmetic. However hard the BJP may claim that caste has never been a consideration in such matters, the stark truth is that in UP there is no other factor more important than caste. That both the organisational and legislative wings of the state BJP are headed by persons belonging to upper castes is not a happy state of affairs in a caste-conscious state where the majority of voters belong to the backward castes. Besides, it also runs counter to the conscious efforts the BJP has been making to shed its image as an upper caste, Brahmin-dominated party. By foisting upper caste persons on the party as leaders, the high command could well be hastening the demise of the party in the state. Unless, of course, it has some other plans up its sleeve.

One such plan could be the replacement of Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta by a leader belonging to one of the lower castes. It is clear that under Gupta8217;s leadership, it is almost impossible for the party to return to power when the state goes to polls next year. Given the fractious nature of the party and the pulls and pressures it is prone to, finding a leader who appeals to the electorate and is, at the same time, acceptable to all factions, will be a Herculean task. But that does not mean that no attempt should be made to discover such an individual. The alternative of foisting someone of Delhi8217;s choice on Uttar Pradesh will take the BJP nowhere as successive elections have proved. In any case, the democratic process of election is far more preferable to impositions from above. If the BJP has any doubts it need just ask the average Congressman how such moves made in the past virtually finished inner-party democracy within the Congress. A similar fate could visit the BJP.