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Shekhawat's poll interest irks his party members
Former Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekh-awat has ruffled feathers in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by expressing his desire to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
- By Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent
- Published: 23:38 January 7, 2009
New Delhi: Former Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekh-awat has ruffled feathers in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by expressing his desire to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Shekhawat, 85, is in a defiant mood and says he is under pressure from people to contest.
His presence in the field is being seen as a direct affront to the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani - since in the event that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) emerges the largest bloc, but short of a majority - Shekhawat would be more acceptable to some NDA parties than Advani.
BJP president Rajnath Singh has ruled out the possibility of fielding Shekhawat as its candidate under the guise that the party followed the convention that a person who had held a constitutional post should not contest elections. But Shekhawat remains unruffled.
"I am not a member of the BJP any longer as I had quit the party when I filed my nomination for vice president in 2002," Shekh-awat said.
He contested unsuccessfully last year's presidential elections as the NDA-supported independent against Pratibha Patil, the official nominee of the ruling United Progressive Alliance-Left Front combine.
Party lines
Shekhawat surprised Advani when he called on him this week and expressed his desire to contest one of the Lok Sabha seats from his home state Rajasthan.
He earlier held the post of chief minister of the state for three terms.
He was quick to remind Advani, four years his junior, that they belong to the same age group and had joined the Rashtriya Sway-amsevak Sangh together in the 1940s.
Despite Rajnath Singh's refusal to field the veteran leader as his party's candidate, Shekhawat is not short of supporters in the BJP.
Being a close friend of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the faction associated with the ailing Vajpayee is believed to be behind the move to persuade the former vice president to throw his hat in the ring in order to make their presence felt and get even with him.
What is worrying the BJP most is Shekhawat's acceptability cutting across the party lines and his networking ability, which he displayed when he defeated the Congress party's nominee Sushil Kumar Shinde in the vice presidential election by getting votes even from Congress party lawmakers.
Regarded as a moderate leader in the mould of Vajpayee compared to a relatively hardliner Advani, Shekha-wat may become more acceptable to many other parties within and outside NDA.
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