BHOLA Bhandari is the last man anyone, including his RSS buddies, would have expected to stir up a national controversy. At the fag end of an unremarkable political career spanning 47 years, Bihar governor Sunder Singh Bha-ndari, 77, has overnight acquired a lifetime's worth of notoriety.
Bhandari arrived in Patna armed with a hatchet, his mission—entrusted to him by home minister L.K. Advani—being to cut chief minister Rabri Devi to size. Inevitably, the two clashed on several Bills which Bhandari refused to okay and she responded by avoiding and bypassing him. Month after month, Bhandari sent adverse reports to the Centre, laying the ground for his recommendation of her dismissal.
He was toeing the RSS (and Advani) line, but at the same time, say those close to him, he was convinced that Rabri Devi should go. Even Bhandari's detractors agree that the man did his homework. Only after wading through mountains of documents and talking to bureaucrats and others did Bhandari prepare his case. Assisting him were state BJP leaders Sushil Modi and Kailashpati Misra and in Delhi, BJP general secretary K.N. Govindacharya.
So certain was Bhandari of his arguments that he aired his views to the press even before the Union cabinet approved his recommendation, prompting flak from all quarters. An indiscretion which prompted comparisons with the other Bhandari, whose inglorious career as UP governor became a byword for partisan politicking.
Known for his honesty, discipline and spartan lifestyle, Bhandari is no game-player and has never built up a coterie around himself. A bachelor, he shared digs with J.P. Mathur and Pyarelal Khandelwal at 10, Ashoka Road next to the party headquarters for several years (the three were, somewhat unfairly, dubbed the "das numbris").
If nothing else, the Bihar crisis enabled a few minutes of cordial conversation between prime minister Vajpayee and the governor. The two have barely been on talking terms for decades. Vajpayee has consistently scuttled Bhandari's chances of becoming BJP president. During his brief tenure as governor, Bhandari has forged a good relationship with the bureaucracy. If his reception in Patna after the Union cabinet accepted his report is any indication, he's more popular in Bihar than outside.
