The Nitin Gadkari-led Bhartiya Janata Party is making all efforts to re-induct senior estranged leaders who are out of the party for various reasons.
Sources have told Canary Trap that the first one to be inducted in the most near future is senior leader and former Madhya Pradesh CM Uma Bharti. Bharati recently quit her own party (Bharatiya Janashakti – BJS), which she had founded after being expelled from the BJP in 2005.
Gadkari had declared after taking over the rein of the party that he would hold internal consolations in the party before taking back estranged leaders.
In Bharti’s case, sources say, all the issues have been cleared. Initially there was opposition to her re-induction from RSS leader Suresh Soni. Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan and his supporters were also not happy with the move and so was party’s Rajya Sabha MP and in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Prabhat Jha. In Delhi, even Arun Jaitley was not very enthusiastic about the move to take back Bharti. But there was some support for the former MP chief minister in the RSS and even senior leader L K Advani was not averse to having her back in the party.
According to party sources, all the issues have been resolved and a final go ahead has been given for the re-induction of Uma Bharti.
And it’s not just Bharti who would join the party soon. The BJP is considering the names of a host of former leaders who they think should be re-inducted into the party. They include:
1. Kalyan Singh: Thrice the chief minister of India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh left the BJP for the first time in 1999. He again joined the party in January 2004 and also served as its vice president. But he resigned in January 2009 and decided to campaign for the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. His son joined the SP and later resigned from the party after relations soured between Kalyan Singh and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
In January 2010 Kalyan formed Jan Kranti Party. Kalyan Singh’s re-entry in the party at the moment seems less likely as there is strong opposition to the possibility of his re-induction from the UP BJP leaders. Even former party President Rajnath Singh and his supporters are opposed to the move of bringing him back.
Sources say his re-entry in the party at the moment is on hold but if issues are sorted out in future, he may again join the party.
2. Sanjay Joshi: BJP workers say if there is one man who can take on Narendra Modi, then it is Sanjay Joshi. He is known and admired for his organisational skills, both in the BJP and RSS.
Joshi has served as the party General Secretary (Organisation) during the tenure of M Venkaiah Naidu and L K Advani. But he had been lying low after a sex CD involving him surfaced in the public domain in November 2005.
There has been a lot of talk about attempts to re-induct Joshi after RSS-backed Nitin Gadkari took over as the BJP President. Sources say that L K Advani has taken a very strong stand against giving him a position in the party organisation. The RSS does not seem to have any issues with Joshi’s inclusion in the party and he has support from senior leader like M G Vaidhya.
According to sources Joshi’s inclusion in the party will take time but it will certainly happen in the future.
3. Babulal Marandi: He was the first CM of Jharkhand and has held the post of BJP vice president. Marandi was also a Minister of State (Forests & Environment) during the NDA government.
He resigned from the party in 2006 following his open criticism of the BJP-led state government in Jharkhand. He then floated a political outfit named Jharkhand Vikas Morcha.
The party is keen to take back Marandi, but so far they have not succeeded. Sources say the former Jharkhand CM has repeatedly rejected the party’s overtures to re-induct him.
4. Madanlal Khurana: Khurana was expelled from the party in August 2005 for publicly criticizing then party president L K Advani. He was taken back into the party in September 2005 after he apologized for his remarks. But, in March 2006, he was again expelled from the party for his anti-party statements.
Khurana served as a Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism in the Vajpayee government. He was also the Governor of Rajasthan from January 14, 2004 to October 28, 2004. He then joined Bharatiya Janashakti (launched by Uma Bharti) and left it after some time.
At the moment there is no opposition to the re-induction of Khurana in the party. Sources say he may be taken back in the near future.
