Rajasthan: Does Assembly Speaker Kailash Meghwal's Suspension Bring BJP's Factionalism Out In The Public? 

Just months before the assembly polls in Rajasthan, the factionalism and power struggle in the opposition BJP which the saffron party has been dismissive of, for a long time is out in the open. On Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party suspended its senior MLA and former Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Kailash Meghwal from the party’s primary membership following the corruption charges levelled by him against Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, a month ago.

Soon after the BJP State president C.P. Joshi served a show cause notice to six-time octogenarian MLA, Kailash Meghwal on the matter, the latter held a press conference in which he not only accused Arjun Meghwal of corruption but also accused the saffron party of factionalism. Meghwal, who is considered a close aide of former chief minister and BJP leader Vasundhara Raje said at a presser, " There is a 'gutbaazi' factionalism, within the BJP's Rajasthan unit, right from top to the bottom. People who are close to Raje are targeted. I have been sidelined in the party and was stopped from participating in the ongoing Parivartan Yatras". Meghwal added that in August soon after he levelled allegations against the union minister, a show cause notice was served to him by the party which sought his reply within ten days.

"Arjun Ram Meghwal be removed from his Cabinet post until the charges against him are investigated", said Meghwal, a sitting MLA from, Shahpura, a reserved constituency in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district.

Corruption allegations

Meghwal (89), a former national vice president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had levelled corruption charges against the Union Minister and alleged that the latter had taken bribes worth crores of rupees as an officer in Churu district before he entered politics. Earlier in a public meeting, he called the union minister the 'Corrupt number 1'. He wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought the Election Commission to intervene and cancel Arjun Ram Meghwal’s membership of the Parliament.

As per the BJP disciplinary committee chairperson Onkar Singh Lakhawat Meghwal’s reply shall be referred to the panel for further action.

A similar move was made by the Congress party, where last month, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had also suspended Rajendra Gudha from the cabinet after he questioned women’s safety in the assembly and claimed that he had got hold of a red diary' which mentioned alleged corruption deals of the present Congress government. However, Meghwal’s allegations of corruption and his subsequent suspension have given the ruling Congress a counter to the BJP’s ‘red diary’ attack.

Meghwal's suspension a loss for BJP?

What comes as a major loss of face for the BJP is the fact that Meghwal is a leader who has helmed several posts including that of a Union minister of state, BJP national vice-president, three-time Lok Sabha MP, six-term MLA and also the speaker of the Rajasthan assembly and his word cannot be discounted due to his vast political experience and association with the saffron party right from the times of the party's predecessor Jan Sangh.

"Meghwal's loss will be huge for BJP as he was the stalwart Dalit political leader in Rajasthan and entire north India. He has held important positions at the state and national levels. This move shall affect BJP in the upcoming polls. His stature in BJP could be guaged by seeing how after being appointed as a cabinet minister in 2013, he was subsequently elevated as assembly speaker after a month", said Tribhuvan, a noted political analyst and senior journalist told Outlook.

While the political analysts see Meghwal's suspension as a big loss for the party, the Dalit rights activists have a different take.

" He was purely a politician and represented BJP more than he represented his community. He was never considered a Dalit leader and never spoke against the atrocities faced by the community", Bhanwar Meghwanshi, a noted Dalit rights activist and author shared with Outlook.  

Meghwal began his political career in the early 1960s with the Praja Socialist Party. He later joined the Bharatiya Jan Sangh and the Janata Party from where he became MLA first time in 1977. Later in 1980 Meghwal joined the BJP.  After serving as MLA, and union minister in 2013, Meghwal was a minister in the Vasundhara Raje government, but he resigned and took charge of the Speaker of the Rajasthan Assembly in January 2014. In 2018, he won for the sixth time as a MLA from Shahpura.