Season of revolt
Prem's chucking East Delhi seat exposes BJP's internal tensions

Now it's Delhi. Coming on the heels of Gujarat and Rajasthan, the resignation of the East Delhi member from Parliament may not snowball into a crisis comparable with the removal of Keshubhai Patel or the toppling of Suresh Mehta. But it's another sign of the BJP's transition from a cadre-based party to a mass-based one.
B.L. Sharma ('Prem') had committed himself earlier. But on March 3 he sent his resignation letter to the speaker of the Lok Sabha instead of to his party chief. Too late, he tried to take it back. His resignation was accepted on the 5th, leaving the BJP a member short in the House and exposing the rot within the Delhi unit.
It all started with the civic polls. Of the 130 seats the BJP won only 79, which clearly betrayed infighting. For the record, Prem resigned owning moral responsibility for the party's poor show in East Delhi, it mustered only 23 seats out of the 40 seats in his parliamentary constituency.
But the real reason seems to have been his anger at being left out when Chief Minister Sahib Singh distributed the tickets. It is alleged that Singh Struck a deal with the former chief minister Madan Lal Khurana's camp, until then at loggerheads with him. The two factions then divided up the lion's share of the tickets among themselves.
Prem was termed a gaint-killer when he first wrested the seat from old congress war-horse H.K.L. Bhagat in 1991. He increased his margin in 1996, defeating the DPCC president Deep Chand Bhandhu. Yet this Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh founder-member couldn't stay the course: he found himself sidelined by the chief minister as well as the party high command.
One of the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case, Prem was earlier close to the chief minister, sharing the same platform within the party. They belonged to the group enjoying the blessings of the RSS. But when an MLA from his constituency held a press conference to run him down Prem looked in vain to Sahib Singh to come to his aid.
When former prime minister A.B. Vajpayee met him after the resignation Prem is reported to have said that it took his resignation from Parliament for the party chief to call on him. The real issue that has surfaced in the party is that there is no opportunity to get the cadre's grievances redressed. And Prem's resignation is seen as a last resort to shift the focus to the infighting in the party.
The disenchantment within the RSS cadre was evident even at the onset of the civic polls. Their grievance was that, once elected, candidates didn't have the time for those who fashioned their victory and rated some of the spoils. This time the RSS cadre said a not-so-polite 'sorry' when they were asked to work for the candidates thrust on them by the BJP.
The cadre, particularly the Punjabis who were traditionally with the Sangh Pariwar, could not stomach the dishing out of party tickets to those who joined the BJP after defecting from other parties.
Another signature campaign against Sahib Singh concluded in November last with reportedly five ministers joining in, and the dissidents are hanging on Vajpayee's lips. While celebrating the third anniversary of BJP power, Vajpayee flayed the government for not running the education and development portfolios (most of the other portfolios are actually under central rule) properly. Sahib Singh had long held those portfolios.
The Sahib Singh camp is banking heavily on the party's policy not to switch leaders. When the Rajasthan crisis was coming to the boil the BJP high command made it clear that they would not dump Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and repeat Gujarat fiasco.
The expulsion of 22 party workers could have been just a fire fighting measure in Delhi, but with 60 rebels in the fray in the recently concluded civic polls the party could no longer claim to be the monolith it used to be in the capital. Some profess to see the beginning of the end of the RSS in Delhi. Others call it teething troubles on the path of growth.

RAJESH RAMACHANDRAN

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