The leader’s skills will be sorely missed and his absence will loom large over when the BJP's National Executive meets on Monday.
NEW DELHI: Pramod Mahajan’s absence will loom large over the BJP when its National Executive meets on Monday for a two-day conclave. Unlike previous occasions, this time the overall mood in the party and the participants is downcast and the usual hype is missing.
This executive has been postponed twice and it is finally meeting just as the internal fissures in the party are resurfacing. Party president Rajnath Singh’s decision to appoint known baiters of LK Advani like Yashwant Singh and Pyrelal Khandelwal and a couple of other decisions, have not gone down well with most senior leaders, who still look at Advani as “a source of inspiration”.
Unlike the previous occasions when three-four resolutions were passed, the Delhi National Executive will pass only one resolution - political. In post-Mahajan times, the onus of drafting the resolution has fallen on party general secretary Arun Jaitley. Though the longish resolution prepared by Jaitley is essentially a report card on performance of the UPA government, the media attention will be on what position the main opposition party adopts on the issue of reservation.
Given the electoral compulsions of a political party, the BJP cannot oppose the quotas but has found an alibi to empathise with the agitating students. Sources said the issue is expected to find a mention in Rajnath Singh’s maiden presidential speech, the political resolution and Advani’s concluding remarks.
The party will put riders and disclaimers to quota. It will demand reservation for the upper-caste poor, non-dilution of status of centres of excellence such as IITs, IIMs and AIIMS and will declare that reservation was “socially divisive” and thus should not be implemented till a nationwide consensus was reached.
The meet, first since Rajnath Singh was coronated as BJP president, is unlikely to bring glory to him, which he could have otherwise expected. The conclave also comes after the Mumbai national executive in December last year, where Mahajan’s organisational and managerial qualities won laurels from all sections, setting a new benchmark for organising such meets. His oratorical interventions and informal chats with the media always provided fodder for a fresh talking point. The comparisons are sure to be made when delegates and media persons assemble in Delhi.
The official agenda of the conclave include assessment of the party’s performance in the recent assembly elections in five states. Incidentally, Mahajan was in-charge of Assam, which is the only state where BJP has won some seats. He had sweated hard in the north-eastern state to keep the party in the reckoning in the polls.
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