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Mayawati, the next PM?

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There will be no wonder if Mayawati emerges as a prime minister of this country. UP and Bihar politics has played crucial role in making and breaking the power. Har Har NaMo and NaMo NaMo has hurt the religious sentiments of many Hindus and a saint like Swami Swarupanandji has already decided make his mind not to support Modi. Amit Shah’s unwanted comments of sidelining Brahmins from the party have given another setback to BJP. Already many have described Modi as a divisive leader, BSP supremo Mayawati expressed fear that the country may witness riots if he wins power at the centre. Anyways, Modi supporters are really not bothered about the growth, development or any other issues; they just know if the “Train is burnt, Modi burnt the entire community;” the craze for Hindi Rashtra has taken over all merits and de-merits of Modi as a Prime Minister. This election is purely, communal.

However, BJP is looping Muslim celebrities and candidates in party to show it’s secular stand but that really makes no difference to win over Muslims’ heart and confidence for Modi. In a nutshell, Modi waves are fading in UP. Congress has failed to utilise this opportunity by assuming that the Party has no future this time. The top brass of Congress, such as Sonia, Rahul, Priyanka and others have already accepted their defeat, maybe that’s the reason the parliamentary contestants are not receiving funds and support for the party. Congress’s disinterest in UP and anti-Modi campaign will definitely benefit Mayawati in the state, and she might emerge as one of the strongest party Supremo for the PM post.

BJP is behaving like a one man party. Many senior leaders have been sidelined and randomly ignored. There are many spoilers within the party, such as Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Rajnath Singh. Singh is Thakur and somewhere Thakur politics makes him greedy. The most senior party leader Advani has become the biggest challenge for the party. LK Advani’s anger against the party leadership is quite obvious because BJP is behaving like a ‘one man show’ run by Modi. Advani is a senior leader of the Saffron Party. When the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was in power from 1998–2004 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani served as Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister (the latter in 2002–04). He was the Leader of the Opposition in the 10th Lok Sabha and 14th Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament).

Advani began his political career as a volunteer of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, his life as a social servant started in 1947 when he was elected as the Secretary, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Karachi. Advani was later sent to Matsya-Alwar in Rajasthan, which had witnessed communal violence following Partition, to oversee the affairs of the RSS there. He is not only a senior leader but has also mentored many leaders. Advani became a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, also known as the Jana Sangh, which was founded in 1951 by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee. He became member of the Rajya Sabha from Delhi for the entire six year tenure from 1970.After serving in various positions in the Jana Sangh, he became its President in 1973 at the Kanpur session of the party working committee. His first act as president of the BJS was to expel founder member and veteran leader Balraj Madhok from primary membership of the party for supposedly repeatedly violating the party directives and acting against the interests of the party. He was a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat from 1976 to 1982.

When Jai Prakash Narayan, who led the public movement against the Emergency refused to campaign for the opposition parties unless all of them joined together, the Jana Sangh and many other opposition parties merged into the Janata Party. With the dissolution of the Jana Sangh, Advani and his colleague Atal Bihari Vajpayee joined the Janata Party to fight the Lok Sabha Elections of 1977. The Janata Party was formed by political leaders and activists of various political parties who had been united in opposing the state of Emergency imposed in 1975 by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. After elections were called in 1977, the Janata Party was formed from the union of the Congress (O), the Swatantra Party, the Socialist Party of India, the Jana Sangh and the Lok Dal. Jagjivan Ram split from the Indian National Congress, bringing a small faction known as the Congress for Democracy with him, and joined the Janata alliance. The widespread unpopularity of Emergency rule gave the Janata Party and its allies a landslide victory in the election. Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister of India, Advani became the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Vajpayee became the Foreign Minister. The erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh quit the Janata Party and they formed the new Bharatiya Janata Party. Advani became a prominent leader of the newly founded BJP and represented the party in the Rajya Sabha.

Recently, he was upset with the party. A series of top BJP leaders failed to persuade LK Advani to run for Parliament from Gandhinagar in Gujarat, the party president Rajnath Singh and Narendra Modi went and met the 87-year-old to attempt a breakthrough. The BJP said it would “prefer” Mr. Advani to contest the general election from Gandhinagar for the sixth term; he wants to relocate to Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, governed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, with whom he has been developing a deepening alliance. When the hard sell didn’t work, Advani was pinged by the BJP’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS whose chief Mohan Bhagwat said the BJP’s top leaders must present themselves as united.

Anyhow, Advani was solaced, but now Jaswant Singh is contesting from Barmer as an independent candidate. He has never represented it in the Lok Sabha, but has reportedly told the party that he wants to contest what is likely to be his last election, from the constituency where he was born. His family hails from Jasol, a village in Barmer. Singh has won Lok Sabha elections before from Chittorgarh in Rajasthan in 1991 and 1996 and from Darjeeling in West Bengal in 2009. However, Vasundhara Raje is allegedly keen to award Barmer to Col (Retd.) Sona Ram Choudhary, who entered in BJP from the Congress Party earlier this week. The former army officer has represented Barmer in Parliament earlier, but was defeated in the 2004 election by Mr. Singh’s son Manavendra, who is now a member of the state legislature. Jaswant Singh was expelled from the party for six years for his behaviour.
Forget the personal differences and pending ambitions for the sake of the party and for the country’s progress. However, on the other hand, RSS and Modi are behaving like a dictator. Advani is the classic case of ‘build something and if you cannot enjoy destroy it’ syndrome. He needs to understand that people are not voting for BJP, people are voting for Modi. People are not talking of BJP, they are talking about Modi. He should be large hearted to see someone from the organisation growing up and building that kind of dreams in people by his work as one has seen in Gujarat. At this ripe old age, Advani should not lose the respect which he has built in so many years of struggle. Let’s see on May 16 who will make to the power corridor.

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Vaidehi Taman
Vaidehi Tamanhttps://authorvaidehi.com
Vaidehi Taman an Accredited Journalist from Maharashtra is bestowed with three Honourary Doctorate in Journalism. Vaidehi has been an active journalist for the past 21 years, and is also the founding editor of an English daily tabloid – Afternoon Voice, a Marathi web portal – Mumbai Manoos, and The Democracy digital video news portal is her brain child. Vaidehi has three books in her name, "Sikhism vs Sickism", "Life Beyond Complications" and "Vedanti". She is an EC Council Certified Ethical Hacker, OSCP offensive securities, Certified Security Analyst and Licensed Penetration Tester that caters to her freelance jobs.
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