BJP’s expanding parivar now includes kin of almost all non-Gandhi former PMs, Deputy PMs

Others include kin of two non-Gandhi PMs of the Congress – Lal Bahadur Shastri and P V Narasimha Rao – with the Congress often accused of sidelining stalwarts who do not belong to the Gandhi family.

Narasimha Rao’s son Prabhakar Rao is likely to join the BJP in Telangana soon. One of Rao’s grandsons, N V Subash, is already with the BJP.

Some members of the “socialist” ex-PMs’ families have also found home in the BJP or in the fold of its allies or “friendly” parties. Ex-PM Chandra Shekhar’s son Neeraj Shekhar switched to the BJP from the Samajwadi Party (SP) in 2019 and is currently a Rajya Sabha MP.

Former Janata Dal PM I K Gujral’s son Naresh Gujral has been a prominent leader of the Akali Dal (SAD), which had been the BJP’s oldest ally before it walked out of the NDA in September 2020 over the farmer’s agitation against the now-repealed farm laws. Both the parties have now decided to go solo in Punjab in the Lok Sabha elections after a few rounds of their backroom negotiations for reviving their alliance failed.

Janata Party stalwart and ex-PM Chaudhary Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh, the RLD founder, had done his stint in the Cabinets of both the NDA and the Congress-led governments. He was part of the V P Singh-led National Front government and subsequently joined the Narasimha Rao government. In July 2001, he joined the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government as the agriculture minister. Later, he also became part of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA Cabinet.

Last month, late Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhary dumped the Opposition INDIA alliance to cross over to the NDA for the Lok Sabha polls.

Former PM H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) is also aligned with the NDA in Karnataka now. Speculation is rife that his son and ex-chief minister H D Kumaraswamy could be a minister in the Narendra Modi government in the event of their victory.

While Lal Bahadur Shastri’s family is known to be a close-knit one, political loyalties of his relatives have remained split between different parties. His eldest son Hari Krishna Shastri has stood by the Congress all along. Of his other sons, Sunil Shastri has shuttled between the Congress and the BJP several times, while Anil Shastri, who had a stint in the Janata Dal in the 1980s, has been with the Congress for many years.

Among Shastri’s grandchildren, former UP minister Sidharth Nath Singh, son of his daughter Suman Singh, has been one of most recognised voices of the BJP. The party last week appointed him as co-in charge of the elections in Andhra Pradesh, where the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls are being held simultaneously.

In February, Hari Krishna Shastri’s son Vibhakar, who had contested the 2009 Lok Sabha polls on the Congress ticket, joined the BJP. Sunil Shastri’s son Vinamra has been with the RLD, while Mahima, daughter of Shastri’s youngest son Ashok Shastri, is with the BJP.

The family members of BJP stalwart L K Advani, who was Deputy PM in the Vajpayee government, have not joined politics but they remain informally associated with the party.

Although many prominent political families from across the country stuck to the Congress during its heydays, with the Gandhi family having an overwhelming command and control over its functioning, the BJP has been going all out now to induct every significant face of these families as part of its unrelenting bid for expansion and supremacy in national politics. “It is also an outreach to a particular community or followers of that leader,” said a BJP leader.

Taking cues from its ideological parent RSS, the BJP has been embracing multiple national icons and leaders to claim an organic affinity with their regions and communities over which it does not have direct influence.

For the BJP, inducting the kin of top leaders from different ideologies also helps “expose the obsession of the Congress party with the Gandhi family”, said the leader.