BJP’s internal feud may prove to be its undoing

Chandigarh , January 23
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is one party that does not have any rebels in the fray. But this does not mean all is well within the party. A party of disciplined cadres, its feuds may not be out in the open, but the internal simmering is palpable.

The Punjab BJP is a house divided with one faction owing allegience to Arun Jaitley and the other with Narendra Modi. It was owing to internal strife that three BJP ministers were dropped and portfolios of others shuffled last year.

Former Parliamentary Secretary Jagdish Sawhney, who was denied the ticket with Batala being allotted to the SAD, has joined the Congress. His followers are now supporting Congress nominee Ashwani Sikri in Batala and are giving a tough time to SAD’s Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal and People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) nominee Yadwinderdeep Singh Buttar.

Similarly, former Punjab Transport Minister Master Mohan Lal was dropped from the Cabinet rather unceremoniously and then denied the party ticket from Pathankot. State BJP chief Ashwani Sharma has been allotted the ticket instead. The BJP in Pathankot is divided with Master Mohan Lal lending only half-hearted support to Sharma. The BJP is contesting 23 seats. It had won 19 seats in the 2007 elections. This time, it has replaced seven candidates and swapped the Batala and Garshankar seats with the Akalis for Ludhiana West and Amritsar East.

The BJP has fielded former BJP state president Rajinder Bhandari from Ludhiana West, the seat earlier held by Harish Rai Dhanda of the SAD. For the Amritsar East seat, the party has fielded Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu, wife of Amritsar MP Navjot Sidhu.

The BJP is facing a major problem explaining to voters the corruption charges against its former Parliamentary Secretary Raj Khurana and former Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia in a land scandal.

While Kalia and Khurana are in the fray from Jalandhar Central and Rajpura, former ministers Master Mohan Lal and Swarna Ram, who are untarnished, have been dropped. Sharma has replaced Master and Som Parkash, a former bureaucrat, fielded from Phagwara instead of Swarna Ram. The BJP is trying to cash in on the grant of district status to Abohar and Pathankot but is facing flak on account of lack of development in urban areas.

The SAD and BJP are alliance partners, but the past five years saw a lot of bickering between the two on grant of funds for urban development. The BJP initially sought Rs 1,100 crore for urban development but was promised Rs 800 crore by the then Finance Minister Manpreet Badal. This money remained elusive.

Later, the Chief Minister announced an urban grant of Rs 300 crore and the Deputy CM an urban development package with schemes that were modified versions of existing ones. This has hit the BJP vote bank hard.

Also, BJP leader in the Vidhan Sabha Tikshan Sud is facing graft charges from officers of his own department. The matter is in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and has damaged the party’s image.

The issue is being raised by the Congress at all rallies, especially in Doaba and Majha. The The BJP is also finding it hard to explain the scandals in the Hoshiarpur and Dasuya civic bodies.

The BJP has pockets of influence in Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar , Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana , Rajpura, Ferozepur and Fazilka districts. Since the party has nothing much to show in terms of urban development, the BJP leaders are highlighting the “anti-people” policies of the UPA Government.

Yet the role of the party in these elections is significant. Only if the BJP retains its urban vote bank will the ruling alliance be back in the saddle.