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Journalism of Courage
Former Bhopal corporator Sanjay Varma is a dyed-in-the-wool BJP karyakarta. But these days he spends his time talking to Congress workers over the phone, something he never imagined would happen in his lifetime.
Varma, dressed in a white shirt and jeans, confidently strides towards the Madhya Pradesh BJP headquarters as junior party workers greet him. “I worked in the Bhopal municipal corporation for five years. These days, I get to decide the Congress leaders who want to join our party. I am a member of the new joining committee and it is my job to decide which Congress leader is a true ‘Ram Bhakt (Ram devotee)’ and who is an opportunist trying to hide in the crowd of thousands and slip past our radar,” Varma tells The Indian Express.
In the past two months, the committee headed by former state Home Minister Narottam Mishra has been busy inducting Congress workers into the party. According to the committee’s figures, 16,111 Congress leaders and workers and a handful of leaders from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have joined the party since March 21. “After Holi, a Guinness World Record will be created regarding membership,” Mishra says.
Each district has a joining committee comprising three members, including an MP, MLA, and another senior leader. After screening the names, the panel sends a list to a team comprising CM Mohan Yadav, state BJP chief V D Sharma, and Mishra. The state leadership takes the call. For the big names, the central leadership makes the decision.
But the Congress alleges that the BJP is lying. “We have 90 lakh workers who are on the official rolls of the party. The BJP has been lying about its figures. The actual tally of leaders who left the party is around 600, as per our tally. The BJP is lying about its numbers for ulterior motives,” says MP Congress vice president J P Dhanopia.
It is, however, clear that breaking the Congress organisationally is the BJP’s main thrust in Madhya Pradesh, which will vote in the first four phases, starting April 19. And having fallen one short last time, it is aiming to win all 29 Lok Sabha constituencies this time.
The ruling party’s numbers, if accurate, paint a bleak picture for the Congress. The BJP claims that among those who have joined it are a former Union Minister, seven former MLAs, and almost 2,000 leaders who occupied positions such as district unit president, general secretary, IT Cell, Mahila Morcha heads, spokespersons, a sitting Mayor, and councillors. Almost 12,000 of the Congress’s booth workers have defected, according to the ruling party.
“Our main focus is booth-level workers. Some weeks ago, there were rumours that Kamal Nath was going to join the party. This worked in our favour as many leaders jumped ship thinking he was going to join. All of Nath’s main leaders are in the BJP. The main leaders are with the BJP. We are going to decentralise the new joining committee to the booth level. There are 60,000 booths in the state. Even if two workers leave the Congress, 1.2 lakh workers will desert the party. The Congress will be finally destroyed in Madhya Pradesh,” says Varma.
The BJP panel’s data says that the exodus so far is concentrated in 34 of the state’s 55 districts, with most leaving the Congress in Shajapur (2,500), Chhindwara (2,111), Narmadapuram (1606), and Vidisha (1103). Apart from Chhindwara that is Kamal Nath’s turf, the other regions are BJP strongholds where the party has been in power for more than 15 years.
In Shajapur, Congress district president Yogendra Singh Bunty moved to the BJP along with scores of his followers. “The senior leaders’ commitment to those lower down the rung is terrible. My father was a former MLA and I relentlessly worked for the party. There is a chasm between the ground workers and senior leadership. The middlemen have taken out the party. One bad decision or statement by central leaders takes away five percent of the votes. For years, bad decisions have been taken,” he told The Indian Express.
When Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra passed through Shajapur earlier this month, he launched a sharp attack on Narendra Modi, alleging that the Prime Minister wanted “children to spend time on their mobile phones, chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’, and starve to death”.
In Chhindwara, whose MP is Kamal Nath’s son Nakul and currently the only parliamentary constituency the Congress holds in the state, many have quit the party alleging that the BJP-led state government has frozen funds for the district. “Many leaders realise that they do not have a future under Nakul Nath. The leaders who left also thought they were unable to get their work completed and switched thinking about their future,” said a senior local Congress leader who says he is thinking about joining the BJP.
Several of these leaders The Indian Express spoke to blamed the leadership of current state Congress president Jitu Patwari. “There is a lack of leadership and vision. What is the point of staying here? Making Jitu Patwari the president was a wrong move. He does not take people along,” said former MLA Vishal Patel.
A youth leader said while in the BJP V D Sharma “meets booth workers and eats lunch with them”, such meetings do not happen with Patwari. “There is no working culture left in the Congress,” the leader said.
State Congress spokesperson K K Mishra said the party was undergoing a “purification campaign” and while “true Congress members were staying back, the BJP has become a dustbin where the garbage of the Congress is being thrown”.
