FACTIONAL INFIGHTING HITS BJP UNITS IN MOST OF THE STATES AFTER LOK SABHA POLLS

It is ironic that BJP which ten years back claimed itself as the party with a difference having high level of discipline is facing indiscipline and factional infighting in most of the states after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Since the formation of the present BJP in 1980, the party faced organizational problems on different occasions but the dimension of the crisis was never so larger as it is now after ten years of Narendra Modi’s rule.

The cataclysm is not simply visible on the upper crust of the party. Instead, it has turned the party hollow. It is not that this malaise inflicts the party only in some states. This has entrenched the body of the party across the country. And the persons who have been responsible for putting the party in such a despicable
condition are Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. These two supreme bosses of BJP with the intention to keep the party under their grip, scorned the basic principle of collective leadership and democratic functioning.

In almost all the states, not only in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, the party is in split and in shambles. The worst is the case that in some states the leaders are not on talking terms. Senior leaders confide that this situation is the gift of the turncoats, those who have come to party from other parties, especially the Congress. They
enjoy the trust of Modi and Shah. In most of the cases these people were encouraged to cross over to BJP by Amit Shah. This is the primary reason that these turncoats instead of abiding by the party principles and ethos, have been taking instructions directly from Modi and Shah.

The party is divided on two lines; one, the original cadres who over the years sweated and sacrificed to build the party and take it to the people, and second, the group of turncoats. What is indeed shocking is while the original cadres and leaders have no say in the party, the turncoats are the decision makers and guide its functioning. With Modi challenging the authority of the RSS and its chief Mohan Bhagwat, the turncoat
leaders who are in power, have been ignoring the senior BJP and RSS leaders in their states.

Himanta Biswa Sarma was a senior Congress leader from Assam. He was framed in at least two financial scams and accused of taking crores of money from the chit fund agencies. Once the CBI started tightening the noose, he switched over to BJP as leaders of his party Congress were not inclined to stand by him. He now not only commands the party functioning in entire north east, but even meddles in state affairs of
Jharkhand and Bihar. It is said he had a major say in selecting the BJP candidates from Jharkhand for Lok Sabha. Unfortunately the party failed to perform, as most of the original leaders stayed away from the electioneering.

The state chief of Bihar till this Thursday was Samrat Choudhary, who was earlier with Congress and RJD. He was the blue eyed boy of Amit Shah. On Thursday Dilip Jaiswal replaced Chaudhary, now the deputy Chief minister. Though it is said that since Choudhary failed to attract voters of the Kushwaha community, the second largest bloc among OBC after Yadavs, in the Lok Sabha election, he had to go. But the fact is senior RSS and BJP leaders had petitioned Mohan Bhagwat about his callous style of working and  neglecting them.

The worst has been the case with Uttar Pradesh. The BJP won 33 seats in the Lok Sabha polls in2024, down from 62 it had won from the 80 UP seats in 2019 general elections. This primarily has been responsible for saffron party’s seats coming down from 303 in 2019 to 240 across the country in the general elections. It is known to even a layman that Amit Shah’s protégé Keshav Maurya, the Deputy Chief Minister, has major differences with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Maurya at the behest of his mentor did not deter from attacking Yogi at party workers meeting. Even MLAs are heard saying that the party is in a ‘precarious’ state.. The is divided between Yogi and Maurya. Yogi is furious that some of the top officials are in touch with the
Home Minister without his knowledge.

Shah for last six months has been planning to dethrone Yogi and install Maurya as the chief minister. So far he could not succeed in his mission as RSS was supporting Yogi and plans to project him as the Hindutva face. Modi who has been contemplating to make a complete shake up of the state unit has to abort his move in the face of caution from RSS.

BJP has miserably failed to counter the Mamata Banerjee’s narrative regarding central funds, reliance on central leadership, criticism over anti-Muslim rhetoric, and the Citizenship Amendment Act. TMC clinched 29
out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2024 elections. BJP lost 6 seats out of 18 it had won in 2019. This happened despite Modi addressing more than 30 public meetings in the state and letting lose reign of terror through ED and CBI.

Banerjee’s narrative portraying herself as a defender of Bengali culture and ethos, despite corruption criticisms, attracted the voters. They did not subscribe to Modi’s and Amit’s hatred campaign against Muslims. The state BJP leaders are divided into two groups one old timers-mainly RSS led by the present president Dr. Sukanta Majumdar and the TMC turncoat Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition in the state assembly. Adhikari, with the blessings of Amit Shah, took charge of Lok Sabha polls in Bengal and lost his face. The RSS l leaders are after him. There is big pressure from RSS headquarters to bring back the
earlier president Dilip Ghosh as the state party president. The TMC turncoats are being sidelined.

The Telangana unit of BJP is embroiled in controversies. Infighting among the state leaders has reached a precarious state. Threat of change of leadership has been lingering. The party’s management of the situation has become a media nightmare. Leaders have been expressing their differences and disappointments in public on social media. State RSS is complaining that some state BJP leaders close to Amit Shah are trying to cultivate the Congress chief minister Revanth Reddy. There are reports that some BJP MLAs may cross over to the Congress.

Though RSS has a strong presence in Karnataka, the BJP failed to retain its grip on the assembly or even win sufficient seats in Lok Sabha Elections. The decline of the BJP in the state has raised the concern of the Sangh. It is more worried over factional feud amongst the leaders taking a nasty turn. Karnataka has the second highest number of office bearers in the RSS hierarchy after Maharashtra, and its joint general
secretary CR Mukund, who hails from the state was involved in various coordination meetings between the Sangh and the BJP for the state. The most favoured RSS link man for Modi-Shah combine, B L Santosh is from Karnataka. A senior Sangh functionary said there was a lack of coordination between the Sangh-backed BJP leaders and the old guard of the party in the state.

The factional feud has been so intense that for months the party delayed finalisation of the name of the leader for the post of leader of opposition. This had prompted Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to say, “This clearly shows that there is groupism among them, in BJP. They were calling themselves a disciplined party, (it is) the most indisciplined political party.” Even Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh had quipped; “The Budget session of the Karnataka Assembly starts today. For the first time since 1952 both in the state
and in the country too, the session begins without the main opposition —in this case, the BJP— announcing its legislature leader. This BJP is loud when it wins but crumbles and croaks when it loses”.

The party is badly split on religious loyalty, between Lingayat and Vokaligga in Karnataka. Though BJP leadership appointed son of strongman B S Yediyurappa as the state president, still the Lingayats were miffed with the BJP for being sidelining in state politics. In protest prominent Lingayat faces like Jagadish
Shettar and Laxman Savadi joined the Congress party just before the polls. The Congress in Karnataka is still divided into two groups but the opposition BJP is failing to take any advantage of the ruling party’s
fissures as the state BJP itself is divided.

The state assembly elections are approaching in Maharashtra, Haryana , and Jharkhand by the end of this year. For the BJP high command and the RSS leadership, the task is becoming tougher to discipline the state units as INDIA bloc continue to intensify its attacks on the BJP and prepare unitedly to fight the party in the coming polls.