| Uma Bharati's marvellous gift for unpredictability is so wellknown to bear repetition. Last Wednesday, it was the turn of the BJP leadership to spring a surprise on her. Dressed in saffron and unmindful of an aching back, the sadhvi was on a long, slow march from Bhopal to Ayodhya, when she was informed of the BJP's decision to expel her from the party.  | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | | FALL FROM GRACE: Bharati after being expelled | | A show cause notice served to Bharati by party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi-there is no love lost between the two-gave her 72 hours to explain her tantrums that followed the choice of Shivraj Singh Chauhan to replace Babulal Gaur as the Madhya Pradesh chief minister. A former chief minister herself, Bharati assumed she was also the future chief minister. Under the BJP constitution, any leader facing expulsion charges has to be given 72 hours time to explain his or her conduct. Ironically it was her conduct during the preceding 72 hours that put her on a course of collision with her party leadership. On November 26, the BJP's nine member Parliamentary Board met and decided to replace Gaur with Chauhan, who was then the state party chief. A shocked Bharati was not appeased even by the sop of general secretary-ship. Sticking to tradition, she proceeded to turn her thwarted ambitions into a display of histrionics and soundbytes for TV cameras. | | | Before leaving Parliament on November 25, Pramod Mahajan, the BJP general secretary whose instincts are seldom wrong, had predicted that it was going to be a very "busy weekend". But even he would not have guessed how tumultuous the next three days were going to be. The next morning, the party's Parliamentary Board finalised Chauhan's candidature. Knowing that the decision would not go down well with the temperamental sanyasin, Mahajan and fellow General Secretary Arun Jaitley were deputed to inform Bharati. The two called Bharati to Mahajan's residence in Delhi. But having got wind of the matter, it was a combative Bharati who came by to Mahajan's house. She accepted a glass of juice but refused to accept the party's decision to replace Gaur with Chauhan. She demanded to know why she had not been chosen instead. The two told her that they had only been asked to convey the decision, not explain it. An incensed Bharati then stormed out of Mahajan's house, warning the duo of dire consequences. Later that night she phoned Jaitley and repeated her warnings. But Jaitley did not succumb to the pressure. Even Atal Bihari Vajpayee advised Bharati to accept the offer of general secretaryship pointing out that this way she would be in charge of more states than just Madhya Pradesh. Two weeks ago, the BJP, which was then in a state of paralysis, would have been less inclined to initiate discplinary action against someone like Bharati. But the victory in Bihar has put a spring in the step of the party leadership which is no mood to be held hostage to personal ambitions. There was a determination to send out the rather strong message that indiscipline will not be tolerated any longer, however high or powerful the leader was. As a senior party functionary says, "We were facing the rate of one rebellion a month, from Shatrughan Sinha to Madan Lal Khurana to Keshubhai Patel. This has got to stop." Initially, Bharati seemed inclined to accept the board's decision, though not without her trademark histrionics. She had not planned to attend the BJP legislative party meeting in Bhopal, but succumbed to pressure from her supporters who wanted to force a show of strength. What swayed her, says a source in her camp, was a phone call from Anoop Mishra. Apart from being a loyalist, Mishra is also Vajpayee's nephew and has often been used as a conduit by the former prime minister to send messages to the sadhvi. Swayed by her supporters, she jumped into her car and drove 13 hours to attend the meeting in Bhopal. Once there, it was clear that all her calculations had gone awry. Though she claimed the backing of more than 100 BJP MLAs, less than a score stood alongside her in the loyalty test. It was then that Bharati realised that her game was up. As she told her aides, "When I looked around the room, all I saw were harsh stares and sheepish looks. There were hardly any sympathic faces." Now she believes she had been set up by her detractors to travel to Bhopal. "They knew that once I reached Bhopal I would get emotional and say something that would lead to my expulsion," a bitter sanyasin told Sanjay Joshi. | | PROFILE: SHIVRAJ SINGH CHAUHAN | | | Dyed in the wool partyman | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | | DARK HORSE: Chauhan (centre) was handpicked by Delhi | | He's a modest man, almost to the point of being self-effacing, with a clean image-even the worst critics of the new Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan would say that. But BJP insiders who have observed him for years point out that he has an ambitious streak and a single-minded doggedness to pursue his goals. In November 2003, when the state BJP was gearing up to decimate the decade-long Congress domination in Madhya Pradesh, Chauhan agreed to take on the then chief minister Digvijay Singh in the latter's own backyard of Raghogarh. That he couldn't perform the giant-killing act is a different matter. But what Chauhan signalled was that he was willing to stomach defeats in pursuit of larger goals. He has since got his chances. He became the state BJP president on May 16. Inside six months, he is the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. At 46 years, he has time on his side. And he is an OBC to boot. That's one rivalry which could stretch for decades. Despite his relatively young age and grooming in the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's street politics, Chauhan is a relic of the BJP old guard. He is also fervently devoted to working strictly in accordance with the party line. That endears him to the hoary RSS leadership, which is a stickler for discipline. Uma Bharati managed to sweep the party to its most comprehensive victory ever in the state in the last assembly elections on the strength of her personal charisma and drive. Chauhan doesn't have that kind of mass appeal or public presence. Bharati's would be a hard act to follow. And he would have to deliver on the administrative front too; here his total lack of experience could be a big handicap. He has never held an administrative post and has limited exposure to bureaucracy or administrative and policy issues. The five-time MP has been a party man throughout. Running the affairs of an entire state is a different kettle of fish altogether; even Bharati found out the hard way during her brief stint as chief minister. At the two-day BJP conclave at Mandu in August, Chauhan stressed that party workers should get involved in creative pursuits and socially relevant activities. That's been his style all along. He has been organising mass marriages of girls from economically backward sections every year for some time now. It gave him immense personal satisfaction, he once said. It also endears him to his constituents. Small wonder then that Vidisha has elected him five times in a row for the Lok Sabha. Hailing from a Kirar farming family from a non-descript village Jait in Sehore district, Chauhan has come a long way. It would be no mean achievement if he could chart a similar course for the party and the state.
-By Ambreesh Mishra | | The rebel leader could have still saved herself from political exile had she not proceeded to lash out against her colleagues, and worse, party president, L.K. Advani. She asked, "Wasn't Advani's statement on Jinnah a violation of party discipline? Inquiries should be conducted against Pramod, Arun and Sushma for indiscipline." Resorting to poetry, Mahajan replied, "Agar but hamko kahe kafir, Allah ki marzi hai (if the person who indulges in indiscipline accuses us of the same, what can one say)." When the Parliamentary Board met again on November 30, the decision to expel Bharati was unanimous. The only supporters she now has are from the hardline fringe of the Sangh Parivar- the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. Even the RSS has endorsed the BJP's stand. "The RSS has always given high priority to discipline," says spokesman Ram Madhav. In November 2004 when Bharati had been suspended for lashing out at Advani and conducting a televised walk out of a meeting at the party headquarters, it was the RSS that had pleaded her case which led to her rehabilitation. But now, she is left without any sizeable support. Expelled from the party, Ayodhya is her next destination. Lord Ram's birthplace is within geographical reach. But political salvation will be harder to come by. Her supporters say the temple town is just a stopover, though she still seems quite clueless about what to do next. There are murmurs of Bharati starting her own party, though it is more likely that she will wait for the change of guard later this month when Advani steps down as the party chief. If the signs are encouraging, she may go back to Bhopal to mobilise MLAs to attempt another challenge. Until then, she can be expected to be in touch with the disgruntled group in the party in a bid to mobilise opinion against the current leadership. But few believe that Bharati can achieve outside the party what she could not within. For even an acknowledged mass leader like her needs the support of the organisation to convert her popularity into votes, a lesson that Kalyan Singh didn't take long to absorb. But such logic has never appealed to Bharati who is forever on the lookout for a tryst with controversy. Her first reaction to rumours of her expulsion was arrogant: "I am the BJP. How can they expel me?" Counters Mahajan, "Tomorrow if someone says she is Bharat Mata, what can I do?" There have been so many rehearsals to Bharati's final ouster that finally when it did happen, everything about it was so boringly familiar.
Index
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L.K. ADVANI
ARUN JAITLEY
PRAMOD MAHAJAN
SUSHMA SWARAJ
