Page 38 - CineBuster Vol-3 Issue-04

N ATION

2023 assembly polls, there are many contenders within the given a Rajya Sabha berth and made a Cabinet minister. In the
party — Amit Shah’s trusted lieutenant Kailash Vijayavargiya 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP gave a ticket to his son.
being just one of them. Even in the Scindia family’s pocket After the Haryana assembly election last year, Singh was asked
borough of the Gwalior-Chambal region, there are many to vacate his Rajya Sabha seat, about three years before his
veteran BJP leaders who have been fighting against the term was to end. Former Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Baijayant
Congress for decades and may not be inclined to accept ‘Jay’ Panda joined the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls
Scindia’s tutelage — to name a few, Union Minister Narendra and the Odisha assembly elections and was appointed vice-
Singh Tomar, former state ministers Narottam Mishra and president — virtually a ceremonial post — and spokesman.
Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya, and MP and former state BJP chief Panda was Rajya Sabha MP from 2000 to 2009 and in the Lok
Prabhat Jha. Pawaiya, for instance, started his journey as an Sabha from 2009 to 2019. After he lost the 2019 Lok Sabha
RSS swayamsevak in 1973 and went on to become a minister election, the BJP hasn’t brought him into the Rajya Sabha, not
in the Chouhan government. He was defeated by Pradyuman to speak of making him a minister at the Centre or projecting
Singh Tomar in the 2018 assembly election. Tomar, who has him as the party’s face in Odisha.
no qualms touching Scindia’s feet, was made civil supplies
minister in Kamal Nath government. He is one of the six Choudhary Birendra Singh and Panda were still fortunate
ministers — Scindia loyalists — who have resigned. as one became a minister while the other is visible on party
fora. There is a long list of defectors who vanished from the
Will Pawaiya watch from the sidelines and help Tomar in political scene after joining the BJP — former Uttarakhand chief
getting re-elected, if he were to contest again? Unlikely. minister Vijay Bahuguna, former Union minister S.M. Krishna,
Prabhat Jha was demanding action against Scindia barely two former Rajya Sabha chief whip Bhubaneswar Kalita, former
months back, accusing him of grabbing government land. MP Sanjay Sinh, and Alpesh Thakor, among scores of others.
When Tom Vadakkan, a trusted lieutenant of the Nehru-Gandhi
State of defectors in BJP family, joined the BJP ahead of the last Lok Sabha elections,
Second, the BJP hasn’t been very rewarding to defectors, he dominated TV headlines for days. Nobody has heard of him
except some rare ones like Assam minister and former since then. Of course, many of them were paper tigers with no
Congressman Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is virtually running mass base whatsoever.
the party affairs in the entire North-East. Hundreds of others
joined the BJP with a lot of fanfare only to fall by the wayside Jyotiraditya Scindia has a much bigger political stature than
sometime later. most of these defectors and his family has also had close ties
with the BJP — and the Jana Sangh in the past — but the
Ahead of 2014 Haryana assembly election, prominent Jat BJP’s record of promoting ‘imports’ from other parties is not
leader Choudhary Birendra Singh had joined the BJP and was very inspiring.

34 CINE BUSTER n MARCH 15 n 2020