New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s opposition to dynastic politics has landed it in trouble in several states.
Supporters of BJP leader Varun Gandhi yesterday (Monday) protested outside the house of senior leader Shyama Charan Gupta in Allahabad and pelted stones in protest after Gupta criticised federal minister and Varun’s mother Maneka Gandhi.
Maneka had suggested that time was ripe for the BJP to bring Varun back in Uttar Pradesh politics following the party’s failure to retain eight of the 11 seats in assembly by-elections last week.
Varun was the first casualty of BJP’s opposition to dynastic politics as he was dropped as the party’s national general secretary last month when the new BJP president Amit Shah named new set of office bearers. The logic given was that both mother and son cannot be given big posts at the same time.
Varun, 34, was dropped as a BJP office bearer even while BJP is trying to promote the younger leaders. Many saw it as a punishment for Maneka daring to suggest Varun as chief ministerial candidate for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Maneka, Varun and Gupta represent Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha and were elected from Pilibhit, Sultanpur and Allahabad respectively.
BJP’s aversion to dynastic politics came to the fore during the last general elections with the now prime minister Narendra Modi repeatedly targeting the Congress party vice president Rahul Gandhi saying he was in race to become the Indian prime minister only because he represents the famous Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has given India three prime ministers in Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi.
Since then BJP is sticking to its opposition to promoting families within its ranks, much to the chagrin of some of the party leaders who say it is being used selectively.
In the poll-bound northern state Haryana, the BJP’s central leadership denied requests by many senior leaders to nominate their family members as candidates for October 15 elections in the state.
However, that did not prevent BJP from announcing foreign minister Sushma Swaraj’s younger sister Vandana Sharma as its candidate from Safidon seat of Jind district.
Vandana, a retired college teacher, is a housewife with no political background. BJP has since explained that it does not apply to Vandana since Swaraj is an MP from Madhya Pradesh.
Vandana is seen as a proxy candidate for Swaraj who may be asked to take over as Haryana chief minister in case BJP manages to emerge victorious in the upcoming elections. In that case, Vandana would vacate the seat for her sister.
In the process the party has overlooked claims of another federal minister Rao Inderjeet Singh who wanted his daughter Arti Rao to be fielded from Rewari seat of south Haryana.
Sukhbir Jaunpuria, an MP from Rajasthan, wanted nomination for his son from Sohna seat of Gurgaon district. Ashok Jaunpuria Monday announced that he would contest as an independent candidate.
Incidentally, the party had no hesitation nominating senior Uttar Pradesh leader Lalji Tandon’s son Ashutosh Tandon from Lucknow East seat of Uttar Pradesh which he won by a comfortable margin.
BJP has decided against projecting its chief ministerial candidates in all four poll-bound states, namely Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir saying it will seek votes in the name of prime minister Modi.
