The BJP which has always accused the Congress-NCP of adopting dynasty politics is following the same policy and is willing to offer deputy chief minister’s post to Yuva Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray. NCP chief Sharad Pawar has always been keen to offer a bigger role to his daughter Supriya Sule. Even Ajit Pawar was handed over the responsibility of deputy chief minister’s post. Now, BJP is adopting the same agenda of assigning the deputy chief minister’s post to Aaditya Thackeray. BJP took potshots at the Congress for following dynasty politics by offering plum posts to members of the Gandhi family. However, there is no difference between the BJP and the Congress as the former too is in favour of offering deputy chief ministerial post to Aaditya Thackeray.
BJP spokesperson Avdhut Wagh said, “Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that if Shiv Sena is interested then they will nominate Aaditya Thackeray’s name for the deputy chief minister’s post. BJP was formed in 1980 and Atal Behari Vajpayee was made its president. Later LK Advani succeeded him and now Amit Shah has taken over. Uttamrao Patil was the BJP Maharashtra president now Chandrakant Patil has taken over.”
“Even Nitin Gadkari, Sudhir Mungantiwar and Devendra Fadnavis were appointed as Maharashtra BJP president. These leaders are not related with each other. In the Congress, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and now Rahul Gandhi belong to the same family. CPI and CPM and BJP don’t follow dynasty politics,” he added.
Since 1999 the Congress had 36 dynastic MPs elected to the Lok Sabha, BJP is not far behind with 31. In 1999 the beginning of 13th Lok Sabha, 8 per cent of Congress members of parliament were either descended from or married to former MPs, only slightly ahead of the 6 per cent among the BJP. The most similar density of dynastic politics was in 2009 when the Congress and BJP had 11 per cent and 12 per cent dynasts elected respectively.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose ordinary tea seller image had a positive impact in last elections has often mocked political families. But he has not been able to get rid of the menace of family politics in his own party even though ordinary backgrounds of their leaders are routinely projected as unique selling proposition of the ruling brigade.
Congress spokesperson Hemlata Patil said, “How can they decide who will become the Chief Minister and deputy Chief Minister before election? If they are doing dynasty politics then it is ok but when we do it is termed as dynasty politics. When Pankaja Munde and Poonam Mahajan are in active politics is it not a case of dynasty politics?”
Poonam Mahajan, MP from Mumbai North Central, carries forward the legacy of her late father Pramod Mahajan, who was one of the most influential Ministers in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Pankaja Munde, the daughter of late Gopinath Munde, is a Minister in the BJP government in Maharashtra. Anurag Thakur from Himachal Pradesh is the son of former state minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.
Shiv Sena spokesperson Arvind Bhosale refused to comment on this matter and stated that Uddhav Thackeray will speak about it.
Among the second generation leaders include Finance Minister Piyush Goyal the son of the late BJP treasurer Ved Prakash Goyal. In fact, there are many young BJP MPs who have taken over the baton from their fathers.
Former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma’s son Parvesh Singh Verma is an MP from Delhi. Former Delhi Assembly Speaker Charthi Lal Goel’s son is current union Minister Vijay Goel. Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara, herself the daughter of one of BJP’s founders Vijayaraje Scindia, has her son Dushyant in the Lok Sabha. Her sister Yashodhara Raje was a Minister in the Madhya Pradesh and continues to be an MLA there.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is the son of Gangadharpant Fadnavis, who was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council and his aunt Shoba Fadnavis was a state Minister. Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijiju is the son of Rinchin Kharu, who was the first pro-tem speaker of Arunachal Pradesh.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh‘s son Pankaj Singh is an MLA from Noida in Uttar Pradesh as is the case with senior leader and MP Lalji Tandon whose son Asutosh is an MLA from Lucknow East.
