Brief revolt

The truce worked out in the Maharashtra BJP following Gopinath Mundes resignation drama may be temporary.

GOPINATH MUNDE took back his resignation as party general secretary. The Mumbai unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a new chief. The Shiv Sena-BJP partnership remains intact. And so, all seems well with the Maharashtra BJP after four days of turmoil. But the truth is that this is only a lull. Political observers predict trouble in the run-up to the forthcoming elections.

The hostility, now much publicised, between Munde and Nitin Gadkari, the BJPs Maharashtra State unit chief, began four years ago when the latter one-upped Munde to get to his present post. Since both were leaders of some standing, the party never quite favoured one over the other and the two men were left to sort out the rivalry on their own.

Over time, it grew worse and neither was prepared to give up. If Munde could draw crowds in Marathwada, Gadkari could hold his own in Vidarbha. If Munde could appeal to Other Backward Class (OBC) voters, Gadkari could play on the regional pride of Vidarbha voters. It was inevitable in this clash that factions would form, and faction-fighting led to Mundes resignation.

The nomination of a chief for the partys Mumbai unit was pending for a year. The outgoing chief, Prakash Mehta, should have stepped down last year, but Munde was against the appointment of Madhu Chavan, who was a nominee of Gadkari. Munde stood his ground despite the decision of a committee comprising senior leaders Ram Naik, Ved Prakash Goyal and Bal Apte favouring Chavan.

On April 19, the partys prime ministerial candidate and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani, was in Mumbai and Gadkari informed him about the stalemate. Advani gave the go-ahead for Chavans appointment. An enraged Munde submitted his resignation the next day, saying he objected to the undemocratic manner in which the appointment was carried out.

The post of the BJPs Mumbai unit chief is a prestigious one. With the upcoming elections, it is also a crucial post for the party. A party source said, The Mumbai party chief has to be a man with the ability to motivate and mobilise workers. He can only do this if he has gained their respect and if he is known to them.

Mundes recommendations were Kirit Somaiya, a former Member of Parliament, and Raj Purohit and Prakash Mehta, both Members of the Legislative Assembly, on account of their proven track record. Mehta was also the outgoing chief.

The BJP has strong support among traders and the business community, and Munde believed that these candidates would be able to connect well with this section. Gadkari, it seems, backed Chavan because he is a Maharashtrian, a factor that he thought would help cement relations not only with the Shiv Sena but also with party workers. A party source said, When Chavan was named chief, Munde resigned since he saw this as a win for his rival Gadkari.

The first round in what surely is going to be an ongoing war has definitely gone to Munde. Stunned by his resignation and the reaction it provoked 4,000 BJP workers reportedly quit their posts the party headquarters in Delhi moved immediately to repair the damage.

To win back a reportedly intractable Munde, the party offered him a carte blanche with regard to nominations for key posts. The post of the partys Mumbai chief went to Gopal Shetty, another Gadkari nominee, but Munde seemed placated enough to take back his resignation.

Why did the BJP capitulate to Munde? Much weighed in his favour. Practically the entire legislative wing backed him. The partys major city units in Mumbai, Pune, Nasik and Aurangabad stood by him. Functionaries in the Latur, Beed and Sangli units also registered their support for him. Munde, bolstered by the support he got, went for the jugular.

It was a smart move on his part to go and meet Sena supremo Bal Thackeray to seek his blessings. The message for the BJP was that Munde was ready to raise his own flag and take the coalition partner with him.

Thackeray had his own reasons to entertain Munde. His son Uddhav lacks his charisma and political acumen, and nephew Rajs breakaway party, the Navnirman Sena, is eating into Sena territory by claiming the Senas agenda as its own.

A visibly weakened Sena was certainly going to give its blessings to Munde. In any case Thackeray had reason to be wary of Gadkari who had been calling for a severing of ties between the Sena and the BJP. Gadkari felt that the Sena and its errant ways were holding the party back in Maharashtra.

However, the single most important factor that made the BJP buckle was probably Mundes status as an OBC leader. He has a wide mass base and the party relies on him to mobilise the Bahujan votes.

One of the things that did not draw much comment during the fiasco was Mundes assertion that it was the lack of democracy in the party that had made him resign. He seemed to have conveniently forgotten that his own rise from a district politician to being a State-level player was partially fuelled by his late brother-in-law, Pramod Mahajan.

A knowledgeable source said that Munde always had a chip on his shoulder because he was overshadowed by Mahajan. It is true that Pramodji was responsible in large part for pushing Munde forward but it is not as if Munde was a baby in politics. Dont forget he has had his education in the [Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh] shakha. He knows how to play the game and he would certainly have risen on his own. But let us just say, he rose faster with Pramodjis help.

While Mundes abilities cannot be denied, there is no doubt about the role Mahajan played in his grooming. When Mahajan died, Mundes career was expected to deflate, an expression used by a BJP functionary at the time. Two years later, Munde has shown that he can get along on his own.