BJP faces trouble in organisational polls

The BJP is facing trouble in organisational elections in Uttar Pradesh. Party workers are, apparently, in no mood for consensus and are filing nominations at will to express their discontent.

In Lucknow, a record number of 76 nominations have been filed for the post of Lucknow city BJP president. This development in Union home minister Rajnath Singh’s constituency has created a flutter in the party circle and is being seen as an effort to stall the probable selection.

Those in the fray are the present Lucknow unit chief Manohar Singh and other prominent office-bearers of the party, including Rajeev Misra, Dilip Srivastava, Hero Bajpai, Govind Pandey, Rani Misra and city unit media in-charge Awadhesh Gupta.

Interestingly, in the Lucknow unit, a candidate known to be the driver of a party leader and another paid employee of the party have also filed the nomination for the post of city chief.

According to sources, there were reports that a particular leader, known to be close to the Union home minister, was all set to be “selected” as the district president.

“This triggered nominations in huge numbers because party workers wanted to stall one candidate,” said a source.

In neighbouring Sitapur district, there are more than 50 candidates for the post of district president and in several other districts, the number of candidates for each post is over 20.

“This is the first time that there is such a huge surge in the number of candidates in organisational elections. We always worked towards a consensus or authorised the party president to take the final decision. This trend will not only blow to smithereens the party discipline but will also fuel factionalism,” said a veteran party leader.

“The BJP has never been a personality-centric party and cadres are decidedly uncomfortable with the present system where outsiders are being given preference,” he explained.