Whatever the likes of Swapan Dasgupta might say or defend, or Jaitley may argue, BJP is slowly loosing it's mind share, atleast amongst the intelligentsia.
The blame, entirely, is for Nitin Gadkari. He's failed to captivate the attention whole making headlines only for speaking out the "foreign origins" of Gandhi and her offspring.
As my dear friend rightly says, Gadkari is simply a fall guy for Advani who is pushing himself rapidly towards senility. In the due course, attempting to make the last solid push for the "power structure" that he never had.
Direct proof of this waning interest is the last "rath yatra" While the '90's saw a huge surge of popularity, no politician worth his salt can ignore vote banks. Specifically Muslim vote banks. They hold the key to tacit, overt or covert support to the political party in power and can make or break the aspirations.
Ditto for the scheduled castes and "outcast" Hindus. BSP has played havoc with the calculations. While traditionally they would have voted for BJP, in lieu of "Hindu Pride", but they have all defected to Congress or BSP.
The above foregoing account is just a reflection of the current scenario. It is based on generalizations rather than concrete evidence. However, it is undeniable that BJP is in a mess.
Possibly, Murli Manohar Joshi should be handed over the reins of party president ship. Modi should be projected as the PM candidate. Jaitley, whose writ doesn't run beyond Delhi Cricket Association should be made to articulate the party's view point at every forum possible. But these are merely suggestions and till the time committed electorate demand these changes, nothing is going to come out of it.
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3 comments:
Murli Manohar Joshi was a disaster last time. Why bring him now?
At least Gadkari talks sense and made sensible decisions in Karnataka, Uttaranchal and UP too. Bring in Uma Bharathy was a wise choice.
BJP is certainly in a mess given that the whole NDA is likely to be able to capture only 180-190 seats in the current national sentiment.
I also think Gadkari is ok. Both him and Nirmala Sitaraman as party president and spokeswoman respectively are sensible unobtrusive characters and so quite suitable for their jobs.
I don't think Advani is going senile. His arguments are still cogent and I think he has learnt from his past silly talk on Jinnah. His recent Rath Yatra was a success. Agree that MM Joshi would be a disaster; he is best suited in his current role as parliament rabble rouser. Uma Bharti is a loose canon and is most unreliable in my view. She would also be a disaster in any leadership position, some of the reasons being similar to the objections to MM Joshi.
People like Jaitley, Shourie, Yashwant, Jaswant have no political base but are fine as spokespersons / think-tank.
I think BJP will find it hard to push through Modi with the allies and so Nitish Kumar will start pushing for his pound of flesh. But Nitish Kumar is not trustworthy and is capable of throwing a googly like Naveen Patnaik. Before that they should throw up as a surprise, either MP CM Shivraj Chauhan or Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh as the prime-ministerial candidate. Both are fine leaders.
Modi, being OBC himself, can mobilize the OBC vote and galvanize support in big cities.
Shivraj and Raman Singh would also be surprised to learn when you have written.
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