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Laxman's team shows he means business

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Bharatiya Janata Party president Bangaru Laxman has left no doubt that he meant business with the constitution of his new team. He has left out outspoken critics of the Vajpayee government's policies and infused new blood, with an eye on the future.

K Govindacharya and former Union minister Sushma Swaraj, who had lashed out against the Vajpayee government's policies recently, have been sidelined, as has Jagdish Prasad Mathur. They figure only in the revamped national executive.

The sidelining of them and stormy petrel Uma Bharati has given rise to speculation that they have been kept at arm's length due to their proximity to Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani.

Party senior vice-president K Jana Krishnamurthy pointed out that it did not mean that those who did not find a place in the new team would be permanently kept out. Referring to Mathur's removal as vice-president, he pointed out, "Mathurji will continue to be as useful as he was before."

On on the exclusion of Govindacharya and Swaraj as general secretaries, Krishnamurthy said while the former had asked to be kept out because he wanted two years to study economic intricacies, the latter had desired to continue as a party worker.

But Krishnamurthy's explanation left room for doubt among political analysts.

Senior party member and former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana staged a comeback as BJP vice-president, which is likely to cause much heartburn to Swaraj. Till only a few weeks back, Swaraj, Khurana and former Delhi chief minister Sahib Singh Verma were critical of the party leadership under Vajpayee.

Verma too has staged a comeback as general secretary, thus completing Swaraj's humiliation.

BJP sources confirmed that while Swaraj, Khurana and Verma were regarded as dissidents, Swaraj was made to pay a heavy price for having the audacity to lash out against the government's economic and national security policies at the recent BJP Nagpur session.

Khurana and Verma have been 'rehabilitated' by Vajpayee and his handpicked party president, after reportedly giving the undertaking that they would distance themselves from potential troubleshooters like Swaraj and Govindacharya.

BJP leader from Maharashtra and former deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde also figures in the list of vice-presidents, as does Pyarelal Khandelwal, who was national secretary.

Party veteran M Venkaiah Naidu tops the list of new general secretaries, the others being Sunil Shastri, Verma and Maya Singh. Narendra Modi, general secretary under Kushabhau Thakre's presidentship, has been retained.

In keeping with his objective of wooing Muslims, the party chief appointed Muqtar Abbas Naqvi as a secretary. Muslims in the national executive are former vice-president and party leader in the Rajya Sabha Sikandar Bakht, Feroza Bano and Nafisa Muzaffar Hussain.

The national executive includes Vajpayee, Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Thakre, Yashwant Sinha, filmstar Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Jaitley.

The delayed announcement of Laxman's new team (he had been appointed BJP chief at the Nagpur session, on August 27) had given rise to speculation that he was ensuring that the new office-bearers were among 'loyalists', with the troublesome variety being relegated to the national executive. The presence of party heavyweights in the executive is designed to ensure that the troublemakers are kept in check.

While the new faces are 'untested' and will be used for party-building, interest is being concentrated on the Vajpayee-Advani war of nerves. While hardliners in the BJP, chiefly owing allegiance to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, are Advani loyalists, Vajpayee has tightened his grip on the party and government.

It remains to be seen whether the prime minister's return from his United States trip will fuel his tussle with Advani or whether Vajpayee's 'indispensability' will see him thorough for the rest of his five-year term at the cost of the home minister's loyalists.

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