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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, MARCH 20: Bhartiya Janata Party president Kushabhau Thakre’s attempts to promote his men has in the past raised quite a few eyebrows within the party. But his latest decision to sneak in through the back door Rajya Sabha member and former Madhya Pradesh BJP president Lakhiram Aggarwal as in-charge of the state unit has come as rude shock to many.
Participants at the meeting of prabharis’ on March 15 were in for a shock. Among those attending it was Aggarwal, who, Thakre said, would henceforth look after the party’s affairs in his home-state, Madhya Pradesh.
The announcement, senior leaders of the party admit, took them by surprise as none of them had any prior information about it. After reliquishing his charge as the president of the Madhya Pradesh BJP, Aggarwal had gone into hibernation.
A staunch Thakre-loyalist, Aggarwal was the president of the party’s Madhya Pradesh unit in early-nineties, when Sunder Lal Patwa, another protege of the BJP national president, was the ChiefMinister.
Patwa, of course, is now one of the seven vice-presidents of the party. In the allocation of works to the office-bearers, announced by Thakre on January 16 this year, he was made in-charge of the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.
Another Thakre-loyalist, BJP general secretary Sumitra Mahajan, who also hails from Madhya Pradesh, is in-charge of the Gujarat. “What has surprised us is not just the manner he has gone about appointing his proteges to important places, but also the adhocism inherent in these appointments,” remarked a senior leader.
He cited the instance of Delhi. BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu was asked to look after the party’s interests till the Assembly elections. Over two months after the party bit the dust in the Capital along with Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Kumar Malhotra was, in a suprise move, made in-charge of Delhi.
Thakre has also come under criticism for the cavalier manner in which he has treated the task of appointingleaders to the committee being planned for ensuring better coordination between the party and the Government. When asked to name his party’s nominees for the panel, he is learnt to have dismissed it by saying that it was the Government’s job.
The delay in announcing the party’s nominees for the coordination committee may cost the party dear. “In the current scenario, when the organisation has taken a back seat to the Government, this would further increase the distance between the two,” remarked another senior leader.
