Faction feuds rack BJP on Thakre home turf

Faction feuds rack BJP on Thakre home turf
YOGESH VAJPEYI

BHOPAL, JULY 4: Factionalism within the BJP has worsened like never before in party president Kushabhau Thakre's home state of Madhya Pradesh.

The ongoing organisational elections have been marred by allegations and counter-allegations, besides the fact that for the first time in the party's history, the various factions have taken matters to court. Thakre himself and other senior office-bearers of the party's state unit Dr Nand Kumar Sai and Lakhi Ram Agarwal are facing notices sent by courts based on writs filed by disgruntled party activists.

The acrimony is so intense that elections in charge Vinay Khandelwal has been accused of getting himself elected a pradesh pratinidhi (state representatives who elect the party's national executive and other office-bearers).

Khandelwal concedes that elections in 21 of the 68 district units of the party could not be held on time, making it impossible to hold elections for the state party chief, scheduled for July 15. ``We are trying to evolve consensus,'' he said.

However, the situation seem is not as simple as Khandelwal would like to project. Even those districts in which the process has been somehow completed have witnessed street brawls and fist fights among warring factions. Many have gone to court and got summons issued against leaders of rival factions. One group of dissidents led by Raipur Mayor Brij Mohan Agarwal and 20 other MLAs has left for Delhi to protest against the ``hijacking of elections'' in the Chattisgarh region by the followers of the BJP state president Nand Kumar Sai and the high command designated state in-charge Lakhi Ram Agarwal.

The other group has accused followers of Union Minister Sunderlal Patwa of capturing party posts in the Malwa region of the state. In the Madhya Bharat region, the party rank and file is split between the pro- and anti-Gwalior Palace factions.

While the party is vertically split into two major factions led by former chief minister Patwa and his one-time ally, Agarwal there is also former Union minister Uma Bharti trying to emerge as a third, balancing force.

Agarwal, once an ally of Patwa, has switched sides, lending support to his detractors, including former chief minister Kailash Joshi and Babu Lal Gaur. Bharati, who had resigned from the Union Council of Ministers last year ``to be free to fight the Congress rule in the state and rejuvenate the organisation'', is herself angling for the post of the party's state unit chief.

No wonder then, that infighting ensured that elections could not be held in Bhopal, Raipur (city), Satna, Damoh, Balaghat, Sehore, Dhar, Ujjain, Jabalpur (rural) and Gwalior. In Durg, court notices have been issued against Thakre. In Bilaspur the home turf of Lakhi Ram Agarwal where his own son was given the responsibility of holding organisational elections party leaders face contempt charges for declaring elections despite a restraint order issued by the court.

The situation is no better in the stronghold of BJP state working president and Rajya Sabha member Vikram Verma. There too, Patwa's supporters have accused the Verma group of ``manipulating elections''.

``It is for the first time that party affairs in Madhya Pradesh have been taken to court,'' admits Nand Kumar Sai, who finds himself in a tight spot as stalwarts like Patwa and Agarwal battle for control of the state unit. ``Once the election process is over, strict disciplinary action will be taken against the persons responsible for this,'' he warns.