NEITHER the national executive, nor the wider forum of the BJP national council took up the recent instances of intra-party dissidence for discussion. The idea was to shift the focus away from the dissident face of the party which had recently been exposed.
But the fallout of the widely reported rebellions in Gujarat and Maharashtra was visible during the national council session in Bombay. Both the Gujarat protagonist Shankersinh Vaghela and his Bombay counterpart, former legislator Madhu Deolekar, were there to remind one that the BJP was no more the party with a difference. The image of a monolithic, disciplined organisation had crumbled.
Vaghela and Deolekar are a study in contrast. The former is an aggressive leader with a considerable following. Deolekar is the very antithesis. Vaghela, who almost demolished the BJP government in Gujarat and forced the leadership to revoke his expulsion last month, was not a "hero" in the Bombay plenary. For many, he was a villain who had sullied the party's image. All through his three-day presence in Bombay and in the national executive meeting at Pune, Vaghela got a hostile response.
Deolekar, who has raised the banner of revolt against the powerful general secretary Pramod Mahajan, showed up at the venue only on the second day. Obviously, the central leadership intervened—despite Mahajan making it a prestige issue—and entrusted him with the task of "VVIP reception".
Vaghela sulked and fumed. But he was not allowed to speak at the venue. The only leaders who "smiled at him", according to party sources, were Atal Behari Vajpayee, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Pramod Mahajan.
The hostility towards the low-profiled Deolekar was confined to the Bombay delegates. But Vaghela had become, more or less, the villain of the piece at the national level. "I am fully satisfied with the settlement brought about by the leadership and have no grievances against the present Gujarat Chief Minister Suresh Mehta," said Vaghela. But those who know him are well aware that he can seldom be taken at face value. How long before he retaliated was a question on many people's minds.
In answer to the treatment meted out to Vaghela, his parliamentarian friend, Somabhai Patel, circulated a booklet blaming L.K. Advani, Keshubhai Patel and Narendra Modi of inefficiency and corruption. That was the real reason for the Gujarat crisis, it contended. The booklets provided one of the discordant notes to the session. Mahajan, on his part, did not express his anger at being overruled. But he made it a point to get Suresh Mehta and Vaghela together before TV cameras to show that all was well again.
The presence of dissidents apart, one other figure was the focus of attention. Raj Thackeray, Bal Thackeray's nephew, got precedence over Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi in Advani's speech thanking the Shiv Sena. Advani was just being practical. The price of annoying the Shiv Sena supremo could be far greater than the price of allowing dissidence to grow within the party.
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