Bharathiya Janata Party In Dire Straits

If trends are going to be like this, it is ‘advantage Congress’. Bharatiya Janatha Party finds itself in a quandary. The party with a difference was building castles in the air, from the very beginning and was becoming more and more confident as the days passed by with victories in all the by-elections held earlier. And the setbacks suffered by the Congress and its allies, on different fronts, such as shooting inflation, sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities affecting the ‘Am Admi’(common man) badly, the law and order situation getting to be worse day by day, the frequent terror attacks at various places like Ahmedabad, Delhi, Assam, Karnataka, AndhraPradesh, Varanasi (UP), even Kerala once a comparatively peaceful state getting to be a breeding ground of terror-recruits, Mumbai, and an inefficient HomeMinister( the then HomeMinister was Mr.Shivraj Patil), almost everything turning out to be disadvantageous. Furthermore the Global Financial Melt-down spreading across European as well as Asian countries affecting the stock markets and there by the investors, FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) running away from the scene thus affecting the economy badly.

The recent by-elections to five States of Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh, Chattisgarh, Delhi and Mizoram, with the Congress snatching victory in Rajasthan- once a BJP citadel, the third consecutive victory at Delhi under the leadership of Shiela Dixit and unexpected 2/3 majority in Mizoram, were a morale booster for the Congress and its allies with a renewed confidence in the emerging elections scheduled to be held in April/May.

After the withdrawal of support by the LDF on the issue of Civil Nuclear Deal and the subsequent canvassing of political turncourts like Samajwadi Party and the JMM( Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), Party led by Shibu Soren to extend support to win trust-vote on the controversial matter boosted the confidence of UPA.

Even the carnage committed by Lashkar-E-Taiba militants in Mumbai, during and before the by-elections in the five States didn’t do much harm, to the UPA which was a pleasant surprise to the alliance, a win contrary to their worst expectations of a wash-out. The BJP which pinned much hopes on the elections had to suffer the unexpected. The frequent terror attacks have turned the citizens stoic and also learnt to live with it and hence did it attach much importance and on the contrary they expected much help from the concerned State governments to pull on with rice, wheat and other essential commodities at reasonable rates which the governments of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Delhi provided. Infrastructural developments during the tenure of Sheila Dixit contributed a lot to the victory of Mrs Dixit to score a hatrick.

In the meantime, the capture of the Sangh Parivar activists like Pragya Singh Takur, a sanyasin, Lt Col Srikant Purohit of the Indian Army on the shocking revelation of their involvement in the Malegaon blasts and sabotage of Samjhauta Express resulting in the deaths of hundreds of commuters landed the ‘Party with a difference’ in dire straits. In the past, these kinds of incidents pointed fingers to Muslims and even the innocent Muslims were nabbed, grilled, assaulted and put behind bars. Never in the wildest of dreams, the authorities had suspected the involvement in terror acts committed by the hindu fanatics. Investigations and trials are still going on and the elections are fast approaching and with butterflies in their stomachs, the BJP leaders are frantically trying to wipe out the mud from their faces and are eager to come clean once again, and at the same time wishing for another opportunity or incident to put the UPA in the dock

The Party’s predicaments are rolling out one by one in the form of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the former Vice President of India and a one time BJP leader deciding to throw his hat in the ring causing head-ache to Prime Ministerial aspirant L.K.Advani and the BJP President Rajnath Singh, division in the ranks coming to the fore with the desertion of former UP Chief Minister, Kalyan Singh, who is from the Lodha community and throwing his weight behind SP(Samajwadi Party) leader Mulayam Singh, Uma Bharti, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh already out of the Party and as the count down is about to start, more and more activists are leaving the Party and are in search of greener pastures, a common sight in India during election season. While Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, the Party had the support of around twenty two allies, and the bigger lots like TDP (Telungu Desam Party), AIADMK (All India Anna DMK) under the leadership of Kumari Jayalalitha, the alliance was smoothly run by the diplomatic approach of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and was in the saddle for the full term. Now Vajpayee is not in the scene due to his ill-health and old-age, the number 22 has shrunk to five or six splinter parties. The great political manipulator and former convener of the NDA, George Fernandez is also inactive due to his ill-health and the reported infighting going on among the second-rung leaders- all these factors stare in the face of the Party and the leaders are in a dilemma. Castles in the air no more, BJP with pounding hearts of the leaders fear a certain defeat.

Will the atmosphere change for the better in a short span- most unlikely.

Anyhow in politics everything is possible and let that hope guide them as an interim relief.