If ex -PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee or ex -Cm Kailash Joshi son and Atal nephew are feeling neglected and stiffled in BJP the Hindutava Icon of indian politics who else will support party. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s nephew Anoop Mishra is turning restless in the Madhya Pradesh BJP.
Suggestions are in the air that Vajpayee’s relative may contemplate joining the Congress as a mark of protest against Gwalior BJP MP Yashodhara Raje Scindia.
Anoop, who was considered the number two in the Shivraj Singh Chauhan cabinet, had to step down in July 2010 following a murder case involving some of his relatives. He earned reprieve from courts but Chauhan refused to take him back.
At home in Gwalior, Anoop is busy organising jan chaupal (people’s gathering) these days. The tone and tenor at the jan chaupal are against Chauhan and Scindia, perceived as rivals by the Anoop camp. Yashodhara had reportedly queered the pitch for Vajpayee’s relative when she had cried with the victim’s kin in Bela village. Anoop’s relatives had allegedly shot dead a youth and injured five others over a land dispute on June 23, 2010.
The move to hold the jan chaupal comes in the wake of Anoop’s inability to return to the Chauhan cabinet. BJP insiders said former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh had been making overtures, sending feelers to Anoop to consider joining the Congress.
In Digvijaya’s calculations, Anoop’s presence would not only weaken the BJP but also pose a threat to the Scindias who consider Gwalior their fief.
BJP sources said state party chief Prabhat Jha, who hails from the Gwalior region, has been trying to act as a trouble-shooter. He had met Anoop a few days ago but he failed to prevail upon Vajpayee’s nephew.
For the record, Anoop has been denying the possibility of joining the Congress but the senior leader has been vocal in saying that he would not sit quietly.
Three close relatives of Vajpayee are associated with politics. Elder brother Suda’s daughter Karuna Shukla is currently vice-president of the BJP at the national level. She has been a member of Parliament from Chhattisgarh; Anoop is a BJP MLA in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly; and Deepak Vajpayee is a BJP official in Gwalior.
Besides Anoop, another BJP MLA and second-generation party leader Deepak Joshi is turning rebellious.
Joshi, second-time MLA and the son of former chief minister Kailash Joshi, too, is threatening to launch a protest against the Chauhan regime. On the face of it, Joshi claims to be taking on the mining mafia but BJP insiders point out that an agitation against the party-ruled government amounts to rebellion.
Joshi’s father is the BJP’s Lok Sabha MP from Bhopal. In reply to a question, Kailash Joshi said: “I have not spoken to him. Although we are father and son, we do not discuss politics. He is a independent-minded politician who takes his own decisions.”
Chief minister Chauhan declined to comment on Anoop and Joshi but sources close to him said he viewed the programmes as “pressure tactics” to get into the state cabinet.