National

The Last Hurrah, Or An Encore?

To cash in on the way he was ousted, his party will have to convince Vajpayee to run again

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The Last Hurrah, Or An Encore?
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THE manner of his going may yet provide the route for his resurrection. For, the BJP leadership is betraying signs of furious indignation at the one-vote margin of loss that toppled Atal Behari Vajpayee as prime minister. And rightly or wrongly, the party think-tank is convinced that this could well become the predominant emotion of the land. Plans are already afoot to launch a nationwide campaign to this effect.

But there is a complex web of underlying factors which will determine whether Saturday marked Vajpayee's last hurrah. Or whether he may yet be convinced to go back on his word, given last year in the Lok Sabha, that the "1998 elections was my last".

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The first among them, ironically, has to do with the one man who has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Vajpayee for much of their adult lives: L.K. Advani. There's going to be immense emotional pressure on Advani to ensure that Vajpayee carries on for a now. Theirs, after all, is an Indian version of a locker-room friendship that survived the test of time. Already murmurs have started—unfairly perhaps—that beginning from upping the ante visa-vis Jayalalitha, through to ensuring a compromise was impossible by relentlessly attacking her and by jumping the gun and ruling out any compromise on Kalyan Singh even as feelers were being sent out to the BSP, Advani wasn't exactly being helpful.

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Advani, say those who know him well, may have to exorcise this ghost again. Because though many believe that by unilaterally declaring Vajpayee as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate a couple of years ago he proved his intentions, some did point out that at the time there was little choice. This time, there certainly is.

There are of course other, more compelling, reasons. Primarily political. Because an election this year, if it comes about, would be tough going for the BJP without Vajpayee. For one, any sympathy that may accrue due to his mode of ouster is not a transferable emotion. And that is an essential to offset a Congress campaign that non-Congress governments don't last five years. Then, there is the charisma and acceptability factor that none else in the BJP pantheon commands. But crucially, its new found allies (especially late entrants like the DMK) may develop cold feet at the prospect of a tie-up with the BJP without the Atal-as-PM slogan to sell its constituents, despite the BJP's diminishing untouchability.

Ranged against this calculation is the hardliners' implacable opposition to Vajpayee and the alleged accompanying "dilution of the party's character". The swadeshi and Hindu assertion wal-lahs would certainly be very uncomfortable with Vajpayee given the confrontations they have had over the past 13 months.

When Vajpayee made his "my last election" statement, Advani quickly clarified that the "party would decide". And he said the same on Saturday. All that could be elicited from Vajpayee was "my decision will be clear over the course of time". But this presupposes that Vajpayee will want to go on. Because all he himself was willing to say when asked about the future after losing the vote was that the "BJP would work together with friendly parties on the basis on which they came together". Not 'I' or even 'us', but the BJP. A hint perhaps on his thinking in the immediate aftermath of losing power. Or perhaps nothing more than a manner of speech?

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The assessment within the BJP when Vajpayee made his statement last year was that if he lasts two years, he would probably not want any more. Well, 13 months are not two years. But it has been enough time, to use his words in Parliament on Saturday, "to chart out some unerasable paths for the country". It's The Legacy Thing.

But all of this is for later. Till then, there is the family. Daughter Namita, who was waiting outside his room in Parliament while he chaired his last Cabinet meet before going to the President to submit his resignation. Stoic, but unable to hide her disappointment. Glad that "Baapji" was going as he came—with his "dignity intact". Worrying that her husband Ranjan—who's been the target of attack from the hardliners within the Sangh for quite a while now—may take it badly because he was far more optimistic.

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Vajpayee's grand-daughter, who got a call from her mother telling her of the events after the vote, is without doubt still his greatest admirer. Which other nine-year-old would collect all the toys she'd received as presents from Jayalalitha in the past year—including loads of Tom & Jerry CD-ROMs—and hand them over to her parents saying she didn't want them anymore? The intangible remains whether his party and the Sangh from which it draws sustenance feel even half as strongly. Provided he wants to continue. And that's by no means certain.

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