The crisis in the Bhartiya Jhagda Party (BJP) is getting deeper with each passing day. On Monday, senior party leader Arun Shourie launched a no-holds-barred attack on the top leadership of the party. Shourie, in a television interview, even went on to call party president Rajnath Singh an “Alice in Blunderland”.
This is the not the first attack on Rajnath Singh. The undercurrent of the crisis, which many believe erupted after the party’s disastrous performance in the 15th Lok Sabha polls, was present long before the polls. Many party leaders were not happy with the leadership of Rajnath Singh.
The media has been abuzz about the letters written by senior party leaders like Jaswant Singh, Arun Shourie, and Yashwant Sinha, calling for accountability from the top leadership.
These letter series started even before the polls began. In one such letter, written to Rajnath Singh before the polls, a BJP leader and former Member of Parliament has accused him of selling election tickets.
Virendra Singh, a former BJP MP from Mirzapur-Bhadohi seat in 1991 and 1998 parliamentary polls was denied a ticket from Salempur Lok Sabha constituency during the 2009 polls.
Singh alleged that he was asked to do the groundwork in Salempur for the polls. There was a feeling in the party that BJP should contest the seat as conditions were favourable after the delimitation exercise. But surprisingly, the party decided to vacate the seat for Janata Dal (United), which had no base there, he wrote.
Singh further writes that ordinary workers to top leaders like L K Advani strongly supported his candidature and still the seat was given away to another party.
“If I had Rs five crores, even I would have bought the seat,” Singh writes in his letter.
Singh also accused the BJP President of harming the party by indulging in such activities and compromising the party’s efforts to win the polls. “The person responsible for leading the party is busy filling his coffers,” writes Singh.
After being denied the ticket from Salempur, Singh filed nomination papers to contest the polls against his own party president from Ghaziabad. He was somehow persuaded by top BJP leaders, including L K Advani, to withdraw his nomination in the interests of the party.
But the allegations he made gives credence to the accusations of tickets selling by political parties during the elections and the sorry state of affairs in the party with a difference.
Virendra Singh’s letter to Rajnath Singh
The article is an eye-opener and throws light on the real problems that the party is facing. Rajnath Singh should quit asap and let somebody else, who is more capable, lead the party.