E-Paper
Trouble for Gadkari, from east and west
Not even three days old in his post, newly-appointed BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s cup of woes is brimming to the top.
Not even three days old in his post, newly-appointed BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s cup of woes is brimming to the top. His first challenge has come from Orissa, forcing him to rush senior Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to check the fallout of a rebellion led by former party MP Kharavala Swain.
In Rajasthan, the pro and anti-Vasundhara Raje camps are heading for what could be violent clash on Thursday when the election of the state unit president is to take place.
Swain, a three-time BJP MP from Balasore, has cited “undue interference of the RSS” to prepare his supporters to eventually join the Congress.
Swain’s revolt is bolt from the blue. Though he had lost the Lok Sabha polls, he was always regarded as the darling of the RSS, having worked for the Sangh in coastal areas of the state.
As Swain threatened to take some MLAs with him, Naqvi called a meeting of senior leaders who “elected” Jual Oram as their new Orissa unit chief in place of Suresh Pujari to check the dissension.
Gadkari has called Raje to Delhi for talks on Wednesday.
But Raje loyalists and those backing state BJP president Arun Chaturvedi have asked their respective supporters to converge at Jaipur for a show of strength.
Raje loyalists have alleged that the Chaturvedi faction has tampered with the party’s electoral rolls to ensure that he is elected president.
“We will urge the high command to cancel the election and conduct fresh polls as the electoral college list is fake,” said Digamber Singh, who is standing for president from the Raje camp.
The party’s election in-charge, P.C. Bhinda, however, said, “Raje supporters did not participate in the election process at the grassroot level, hence their names are missing. They should file appeals with the state election tribunal of the party.”
Chaturvedi was appointed by outgoing BJP president Rajnath Singh to taken on Raje, who was forced out as Leader of Opposition despite she commanding support of many MLAs.
Raje is keen to return to the post or becoming Rajasthan unit chief.
In another development, a local court in Jaipur ordered filing of an FIR against Raje and 14 others for allegedly misplacing a file pertaining to prime land worth crores of rupees allotted to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Trust.
A day after he was appointed, Gadkari suffered a major setback in his home state. His close aide and a sitting MLC, Ashok Mankar, lost in Nagpur.
(Inputs from Jaipur)
