Sonia's entry will force UF to target Congress, feels BJP
Rajesh Ramachandranin New Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party feels Sitaram Kesri's decision to resign from the Congress presidency will benefit it more than any other recent political development.
With Sonia Gandhi poised to take over the Congress reins from Kesri, the BJP feels last week's frenetic moves to form an anti-BJP government at the Centre will come to a nought.
Unlike Congressmen who feel that Sonia will take charge right away, BJP leaders feel she will bide her time, at least till the BJP forms a government.
BJP leaders say they do not feel threatened by the prospect of Sonia becoming Congress president. On the contrary, they say, the United Front, particularly the Left Front, will be affected by such a decision, considering that the Left has been opposed to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty all along.
Another factor that has spread cheer in the BJP camp is that, with Sonia's imminent entry, Telugu Desam Party chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu will come under increased pressure within his party to take an even more trenchant anti-Congress stand.
Naidu was one of the few UF leaders to have opposed Sonia when she entered the election campaign, and even spoke about enacting a law to prevent naturalised citizens from occupying posts of power.
Meanwhile, all is not well with the BJP's efforts to pacify its allies.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Jayalalitha is proving to be a thorn in its side, and senior BJP leaders concede that she is posing more problems for them than Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
"Mamata would most probably join the government after the local body elections in West Bengal in May. If she does so now, she would not be able to fight the election on an anti-establishment plank. But the case is different with Jayalalitha," a top BJP official told Rediff On The NeT.
Even if Jayalalitha wants to get the DMK government in Tamil Nadu dismissed, the BJP may not oblige her. So what she might end up doing is leading a campaign against the Karunanidhi government while remaining outside the federal government.
"She can go hammer and tongs at the Tamil Nadu government only if she is outside the government. If she is part of the central government she may not able to do it effectively," says BJP vice-president Bangaru Laxman.
The BJP, it is learnt, has proposed L K Advani's name for the finance minister's post to pre-empt Jayalalitha demanding it for her ally, Janata Party leader Dr Subramanian Swamy.
Kushabhau Thakre, the BJP's senior-most general secretary, while speaking to Rediff On The NeT, maintained that the party is not a house divided. "Everything, including the national agenda, would be finalised once the Election Commission issues the notification (convening the 12th Lok Sabha)," he said.
But more than the national agenda, it is the issue of inducting allies into the government that is posing a problem for the party. For the BJP knows only too well that there would be inherent instability when the allies remain outside the government.
All the party general secretaries and other senior leaders met at Atal Bihari Vajpayee's home on Monday to take stock of the situation. BJP general secretary K N Govindacharya told Rediff On The NeT that there was no discussion on the national agenda, nor were there any decisions on the choice of speaker.
"The question of allies will be tackled individually. Everything, including the choice of the speaker, will be decided after the talks with allies have concluded," Govindacharya said.
Elections '98
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