BJP leaders divided over Kushwaha
Ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is a divided house over the issue of induction of the tainted former state BSP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha into the party.
Increasing number of leaders in the party find little justification for the decision that has “dented” the anti-corruption agenda of the saffron party.
The party MPs - Maneka Gandhi and Yogi Adityanath - have strongly criticised the move to bring home Kushwaha, who is facing charges of corruption in the National Rural Health Mission scheme. “We are angry with this decision. We have people who are honest and hard working,” said Gandhi. Adityanath has threatened to quit the party if it did not retract its decision.
Interestingly, some of the leaders in the BJP have also used the episode to get more party tickets for their respective candidates in the ensuing polls.
Sources said one of the party’s lead campaigners in the state, Uma Bharti, communicated to the party president Nitin Gadkari through senior leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi that she would not be available for the campaign due to “bad health”.
The excuse by the OBC leader is apparently on account of the inclusion of another backward leader (Kushwaha) into the party fold. Bharti, however, publicly announced that she would be participating in the campaign. The snowballing of the opposition to Kushwaha’s inclusion started after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and veterans like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi expressed themselves against the move.
