Amid a growing perception that Narendra Modi has become synonymous with the BJP ? ?BJP and Modi are not two separate things,? party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Monday ? only a few leaders of the old guard are standing up to him.
What binds them together, along with others who have been humbled but accepted it, is that they have all been close to Atal Bihari Vajpayee or L K Advani, who is among those grumbling. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi have managed to stay afloat on account of the positions they hold in decision-making wings. They are contesting the elections, though not all of them in the seats they wanted.
Jaswant Singh, Harin Pathak, Lalmuni Chaubey, Rajendrasinh Rana and Lalji Tandon have, on the other hand, been dumped without a ticket. While Tandon and Rana appear to have accepted it silently, Jaswant in Barmer and Lalmuni Chaubey in Buxar, next to Modi?s seat Varanasi, have declared their disgust at the way the party is being run. So has Harin Pathak in Ahmedabad, but he hasn?t declared himself a candidate yet.
?The Namo-Namo tamasha, the decision-making process reminds me of 1975. There is more of arrogance and less of taking everyone along,? Jaswant said after filing his nomination. And PTI quoted Chaubey as saying, ?The BJP has become a party of slaves. He (Rajnath Singh) is president of the slaves.?
Party leaders note Chaubey?s standing in the Bihar BJP is due largely to his closeness to Vajpayee. Jaswant has been one of Vajpayee?s closest aides and, it is learnt, had ensorsed the latter?s position when he sought Modi?s resignation over the 2002 riots. Most recently, he attacked Rajnath for the 2009 poll results after which Rajnath expelled him, only to bring him back under pressure from Advani.
Pathak, a seven-term MP now passed over in Ahmedabad East, is loyal to Advani. And Rana, a five-term MP denied Bhavnagar, had accommodated RSS leader Sanjay Joshi, a rival of Modi, at his home in Delhi.
Tandon, often called a caretaker of Vajpayee?s constituency, has been made to vacate the seat for Rajnath, whose arrival in Lucknow is symbolic of an inheritance of the Vajpayee legacy.
Advani and Sushma have been expressing their displeasure at various party moves centred around Modi?s prime ministerial bid. Sushma has objected about Modi working his strategies without consulting the party leadership, and criticised any alliance with the BSR Congress in Karnataka. This did make the BJP parliamentary board discuss the issue of alliances with all members, but it was Modi?s writ that prevailed with the induction of BSR Congress chief Sriramulu and his nomination from Bellary.
Advani, for his part, indicated what he thinks of Modi when he expressed a desire to shift out of Gujarat and contest from Bhopal. Though Advani did not spell it out, it was clear he preferred to be elected from Shivraj Singh Chouhan?s state. Party leaders eventually prevailed over Advani but his objections seem to have encouraged others such as Jaswant and Chaubey. Given Tandon and Rana?s silence, however, lessers leaders look set to accept the ?generational shift? to the Modi-Rajnath new guard.