By L.S. Herdenia
BHOPAL: For the first time BJP rebels are not only posing serious difficulty for the party leadership but giving vent to their feelings in such language that is alien to this party which has been claiming it was a party with a difference.
Ramkrishna Kusumaria, who was minister and several terms MP and MLA, has said that now his main mission is to end BJP atank (terror). Kusumaria, a committed RSS volunteer, has filed nominations from two constituencies. In Damoh he is challenging Jayant Mallaya, senior-most minister, holding the finance portfolio.
In still harder language spoke Samiksha Gupta, former Gwalior mayor. She said that “BJP honours slaves instead of devoted workers. She too is contesting against the official BJP candidate and has resigned from the party.
Prabhat Jha, party vice president, rushed to Damoh to persuade Kusumaria to withdraw his nomination. According to reports, Kusmaria after telling Jha a firm ‘No’ told media his mission was to end “atank (terror) of BJP”.
Kusmaria said he had wiped out terror of bandits from Bundelkhand, but now there was a new terror- that of BJP. He said there was “tanashahi” (dictatorship and “manmani” (arbitrariness) and it has to be removed. Taking a dig at the chief minister, he said he was contesting from two seats:Pataharia and Damoh. He said he made it clear to the BJP that “It had done what it wanted to do now let him do what he wanted to do”. Kusumaria claims he will win both seats.. Asked if he would support BJP after winning the elections, he said “I can, if BJP wants me to”.
In Gwalior Samiksha Gupta, former Mayor, sought the opinion of her followers before taking her next step. They told her there was no sense to be in the BJP and she should resign and contest the election. After later signed her resignation and sent it to party president Amit Shah. Reports of such rebellion are also coming from other parts of the state.
Meanwhile, the controversy over the Congress election manifesto mentioning the banning of RSS shakhas on government premises and not allowing government employees to take part in Sangh activities is refusing to die down.
The statement by senior Congress MLA Sunderlal Tiwari that the RSS is a ‘symbol of terrorism’ reignited the issue on Tuesday, with BJP leaders, spearheaded by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, aggressively taking up the issue with Congress. The chief minister said the Sangh was an organisation of patriots and dared the Congress to try and ban it. He also said that he was the one who lifted the ban on government employees’ participation and added that every citizen, including employees, had the right to take part in RSS activities.
The Congress tried both the defence and offence modes. State president Kamal Nath, while distancing the party from Tiwari’s statement, said that the point made by Congress in the manifesto was totally misrepresented and there was no talk of banning the organisation.
The main offensive of the Congress, however, came from ex-CM Digvijaya Singh, who dared CM Chouhan to get a ‘new law’ passed by the Modi government that would allow officials to keep ‘working relations’ with the RSS.
“Let chief minister Chouhan manage to have a new law passed by the Modi government. Otherwise, as per the existing norms under the central law, government officials cannot maintain any relations with the RSS. That’s clear,’ Singh said while talking to media persons in Bhopal. (IPA Service)
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