ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

BJP's Bihar unit is divided over Govindacharya

Following Bharatiya Janata Party's Bihar unit chief Yashwant Sinha's ascendance as finance minister in the saffron coalition government at the Centre, the party's Bihar unit leadership is up for grabs. Naturally, with more than one aspirant for the post, ugly factionalism, which otherwise remains suppressed in this cadre-based party, has reared its head.

In the centre of everything, naturally, is the party's inhouse theoretician K N Govindacharya, who is also the general secretary in charge of the Bihar unit. With the local unit riven into two camps, for and against him, the latter have quickly moved in for the kill.

Recently, 11 MPs from Bihar wrote a strongly worded letter to outgoing party president L K Advani, demanding Govindacharya's removal from the scene and also to elect the next state president through the ballot.

Later, however, when the central committee took up the matter, many MPs on the list said their signature was forged. They clarified that they had only agreed to the proposal to elect the state president, and never wanted Govindacharya's removal.

The group standing alongside Govindacharya, widely regarded to be led by the party's leader of the opposition in the assembly Sushil Kumar Modi, wants the state president to be chosen through consensus, in keeping with party tradition. But the other faction headed by former Bihar unit president and senior leader Ashwini Kumar want elections following the democratic traditions.

Sources in the BJP point out that the clash in the state unit, is a fallout of the tussle for supremacy at the national level.

Govindacharya is considered close to Advani, and has managed to retain the upper hand so far. The group opposed to him believe that, if consensus and unanimity prevail in the party, he would have a major say in the selection of the next party president, something which they are determined to scuttle. Sources believe that Govindacharya's detractors have the blessing of another hardliner politician in Delhi.

However, this faction has not had a good run so far. When the term of former state president Ashwini Kumar was about to end in November last and organisations elections were to be held, the general elections put everything on hold. The central committee, in a hurry, then made Sinha, considered close to Govindacharya, the state chief.

Again, at the nomination stage during the recent Lok Sabha elections, Govindacharya's detractors tried their best to put up Poonam Sinha, wife of film star Shatrughan Sinha, from Patna, but the choice finally fell on C P Thakur. The latter won the repoll, but that was despite a bulk of his party working against him.

Thakur's victory was a major jolt to the rebels. While the Govindacharya faction came out on top, for Modi personally, the results came as a godsend since Thakur scored the highest lead in the assembly segment represented by him.

Stung by these setbacks, the group opposed to Govindacharya decided to carry the battle to the national leadership and have him removed from the state.

Bihar unit vice-president Yashodanand Singh, who has come out against the party general secretary in the letter to Advani, stressed that it was only Govindacharya's one-sided selection of candidates that was responsible for the party's below-par performance in the polls.

Singh further argues that he and his associates will not tolerate 'dictatorship' in the name of consensus and are willing to take the tussle to any level to uphold democratic traditions in the party.

With these developments, Bihar could well prove to be the first chink in the BJP's armour.

Tell us what you think of this report