Party may go to hell, Gadkari’s business is on the rise.

 Anil Narendra

Most of the leaders of Bhhartiya Janata Party do not agree with the style of functioning of BJP President Nitin Gadkari. Gadkari is considered to be a representative of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, and he became BJP President with the support of the RSS. Gadkari is a businessman and he is running BJP like his own shop. The recent controversy is related to the distribution of Rajya Sabha tickets. There sharp arguments at the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting on Tuesday over the issue of setting aside the deserving Party candidate and giving ticket to a person  allegedly on the basis of money power. A number of MPs under the leadership of Yashwant Sinha criticized the Party leadership for not fielding an official candidate, but supporting a businessman, Anshuman Mishra. Sinha said that the Party MLAs should not be left at the mercy of 'the horse trading bazaar'. It causes the Party's discipline to break and blemishes its image. He said that in case the strategy was not changed in the present Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand, he would resign. Most of the MPs were displeased with SS Ahluwalia being denied Party ticket from Jharkhand. It is reported that the Sangh had vetoed on the name of Ahluwalia. MP from Himachal Pradesh, Shanta Kumar said that Ahluwalia is an influential leader of the Upper House and he must have been allowed one more term. Nawada MP Bhola Singh said that Party's self-consciousness had been shattered and it had prostrated before the money power. Maneka Ghandhi, an MP from Anwala appealed to the central leadership to end the Karnataka crisis and consider the demands made by Yediyurappa. Denial of Rajya Sabha ticket to Ahluwalia has fulfilled the wishes of the Congress and Mayawati. Ahluwalia have been cornering the government on all the issues, which had added to the problems of the government. Mayawati also wanted that Ahluwalia should not be allowed second term as an MP, as he would have to surrender his government house at 10 Gurudwara Rakab Ganj. Had Gadkari wanted, he would have sent Ahluwalia to the Rajya Sabha. He was short of his victory by just 11 votes. Under the circumstances, he could have made up this shortage with the help of JD(U), but in spite of his talking to Gadkari for this seat earlier, Gadkari with Sushil Modi left this seat for JD(U) and the Bihar JD(U) chairman, and Vashishtha Singh was fielded from this seat. The most delicate situation in the Party's Parliamentary Committee meeting was that of LK Advani, who sat as a silent spectator throughout the meeting. The impact of the rebellious mood of MPs was evident immediately after. It is being said that now the Party would not press its MLAs to vote for any independent candidate, but efforts are being made that the BJP MLAs boycott the election. As a Party President, Gadkari led the election campaign in a dictatorial manner. First, with the support oj RSS, Gadkari appointed a Pracharak and former Organisation Secretary of RSS, Sanjay Joshi, the in charge of UP electioneering campaign, despite strong opposition from the high statured leader and the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. Secondly, despite opposition from all Party leaders, Gadkari enrolled ousted BSP leaders Babu Singh Kushwaha and Badshah Singh as members of the Party. All the experiments, excepting that of Uma Bharati in Bundelkhand failed miserably. In order to stop the polarization of votes, fire-brand leaders, Varun Gandhi and Aaditya Nath were confined to their constituencies, while on the other hand, the leader with recognized Hinduism face, Narendra Modi was invited for electioneering, but when he expressed his displeasure, no effort to placate him was made.

Despite all its efforts, the Party not only failed to stop polarization of Muslim votes, but it also lost its traditional votes in this effort, which resulted in Party's failure even to revisit its performance of 2007.

Whether it is Uttarakhand or Punjab, the BJP has been down-graded in both the States. The popularity graph of BJP has been sliding downward, from the day, Gadkari has taken over as the President of the Party, but Nitin Gadkari is least bothered about this. In fact, he has been running the Party like a shop, with the sole aim of minting money and he is doing this job efficiently. Gadkari's shop is running will, Party may go to dogs.