After he failed to deliver a victory for his party in the Delhi Assem-bly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party strategists decided not to involve finance minister Arun Jaitley in the Bihar Assembly polls. The task of managing the ongoing election was entrusted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi confidant and BJP president Amit Shah, who has acquired the reputation of being a master strategist after the party’s stupendous performance in Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha polls. All the preparations, beginning with the selection of candidates and deployment of campaigners to the poll issues which have to be flagged, have been handled by Mr Shah. Mr Jaitley was only called in to release the party’s vision document before the election, but has been conspicuous by his absence through the campaign even though he was in charge of Bihar in the last two elections.
However, this could well work to the advantage of the finance minister. If reports about a possible BJP defeat prove to be correct, Mr Jaitley can sit pretty as he will escape the blame game, which is bound to follow after the election verdict. The minister faced a lot of flak from party insiders after the BJP’s disastrous performance in the Delhi election. But this time, the attack will be focused on Mr Shah. If the party loses, that is.
BJP president Amit Shah has become quite unpopular with his own party members. His overbearing style of functioning and his arrogance has not gone down well with the BJP rank and file. Talking openly and fearlessly about Mr Shah’s rude behaviour, disgruntled BJP workers in Bihar cite innumerable instances of the party president’s brusque manner. Narra-ting one such incident, a BJP worker said when a few angry candidates, who were denied tickets, decided to fight the election as rebels, a leader asked Mr Shah to persuade them to withdraw from the contest.
Apparently, the candidates were willing to be persuaded if they got a call from a senior leader, preferably the party president. But instead of mollifying the rebel candidates, Mr Shah issued them an ultimatum and asked them to withdraw by a specified date failing which, he warned, they would be thrown out of the party. After being talked down to in this fashion, the candidates decided they would go ahead and take their chances. As I said, the chickens will come home to roost if the party doesn’t perform well.
With crowds coming in droves to hear him, Bhojpuri singer-actor and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Manoj Tiwari is in great demand in the ongoing Bihar Assembly elections. BJP president Amit Shah is deploying him extensively in the poll campaign. However, not all party leaders are pleased with Mr Tiwari’s popularity. In fact, one senior leader has specifically told Mr Shah that he would not like to accompany Mr Tiwari to any election rally. Apparently, many leaders are put off because they get completely overshadowed by Mr Tiwari at these meetings.
Mr Tiwari invariably grabs all the limelight with eager crowds insisting that the superstar first entertain them with a song or two before making his pitch for votes for the BJP. And the star is only too willing to oblige. Party seniors complain that they have to sit around waiting for over an hour while Mr Tiwari entertains the excited audience. Much to their chagrin, the crowds often melt away by the time they get an opportunity to have their say. “Is Tiwari a bigger star than me... in fact, I am even more popular than Shah Rukh Khan,” huffed an angry BJP leader from Bihar. Now that’s a test no one seems keen on.
A common refrain among Congress functionaries is that party president Sonia Gandhi is not accessible to them and that it is next to impossible to meet her. It is only after they put in several requests with her unhelpful office staff that they finally manage to get an appointment. Given the difficulties they encounter before they are granted an audience with the party chief, Congress leaders who get called in for a meeting have reasons to be pleased with themselves. It was the same with former Maharashtra legislator and All-India Congress Committee member Nirmala Thokal, who recently received a frantic call in her hometown Sholapur that she had an appointment with the Congress president the next day.
Ms Thokal made hurried arrangements to take the first train she could to make it in time for the long-awaited meeting. She even received several reminders about her appointment from Mrs Gandhi’s anxious staff members while she was on the train. Imagine Ms Thokal’s shock and disappointment when she reached 10, Janpath at the appointed time, only to be told that her name was not on the list. The staff had apparently mistaken her for somebody by the name of Charulata. The incident only goes to illustrate the sorry state of affairs in the Congress president’s office.
The writer is a Delhi-based journalist
