BJP sources said the survey carried out by a private agency at the behest of BJP chief Nitin Gadkari has indicated that party workers in the state unit are sick and tired of factionalism.
Isn’t there a single BJP leader fit to head the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit? There isn’t, really, concludes a secret survey recently carried out by the party high command in the state. Ridiculous, considering the galaxy of leaders UP has, but true.
BJP sources said the survey carried out by a private agency at the behest of BJP chief Nitin Gadkari has indicated that party workers in the state unit are sick and tired of factionalism. The workers have been virtually unanimous in saying none of the top state leaders, like former state presidents Kalraj Mishra, Vinay Katiyar, Kesrinath Tripathi, and BJP MP Lalji Tandon, should be made UP BJP chief.
There are also reports of considerable heartburn among the party leaders here over the manner in which the hush-hush survey was carried out. “The new chief seems to have started a corporate style. But if he wants to know the truth, he should speak to the grassroots level workers,” said a senior party leader.
A source in the party said at one point Varun Gandhi was considered for the post, but the proposal was dropped, perhaps because the feisty leader could prove to be, as a senior party leader put it, “too hot to handle”.
On his part, Gadkari, as soon as he took over from Rajnath Singh, had promised UP leaders that the party leadership won’t impose any leader on them. He had asked BJP’s UP unit to choose its chief.
However, a bitter factional battle in the UP BJP unit baulked the process. The main reason, party insiders say, was the cold war between Rajnath Singh, who has a major political stake in the state, and the party’s state incharge Arun Jaitley under him.
It is no secret that the present UP unit chief Ramapati Ram Tripathi was Rajnath’s personal choice.
Things could work out to Rajnath’s advantage once again as
Jaitley is no longer a general secretary in Gadkari’s new team, and his detractors Vinay Katiyar and Kalraj Mishra have already been accommodated as national vice-presidents.
But, for the party’s central leadership, finding the right man to head the UP unit promises to be an unenviable task.
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