Dissent should be raised within party, not publicly: Naidu to veterans

As the Bharatiya Janata Party grappled with the dissent by four party veterans, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday suggested that they should have raised their views at a party forum rather than going public.

The Union minister for parliamentary affairs asserted that the country and party needed Narendra Modi’s leadership but said the BJP “will take note of these views and concerns”.

Senior BJP leaders -- Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha -- have attacked Modi and BJP president Amit Shah after drubbing of the party in Bihar polls.

In a statement, the party veterans said the party has been “emasculated” in the last one year and was being “forced to kowtow to a handful”.

Naidu said, “Some of our senior leaders have raised certain issues. It would have been better if these issues were raised in a party forum rather than public, but still we will take note of these views and concerns.”

“We will discuss with all the concerned. The parliamentary board has already decided to take up with all the concerned and discuss the shortcomings that led to the defeat in Bihar. That has been the practise,” Naidu said.

When BJP was trying to improve its performance after 2009, Modi proved to be “the man for the occasion” for both the party and the nation, he said.

“Modi led the campaign and the party secured an all time high number of Lok Sabha seats. People gave absolute majority to one party after a gap of 30 years,” the Union minister said.

He said Modi has been instrumental in lifting the pride of the nation among the people of India and the world.

Crediting Modi for party’s performance in Maharashtra, Jharkand, Jammu-Kashmir and Haryana where BJP was in power, he also referred to BJP’s good performance in various municipal body elections after it came to power at the Centre. 

“Be it Assam, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, even Bengaluru, Andaman and Ladakh. We also made spectacular inroads in the neighbouring state of Kerala where we used to be very weak,” he said.

Defending BJP president Shah, Naidu said he played an important role in strategising the party and organising the campaign during the elections.

“The BJP lost 2004 Parliamentary elections I was the president, Atalji was the leader. 2009 also we lost to UPA 2 when Advaniji was the leader. We also lost some state assembly elections.”