As the Bharatiya Janata Party gets ready for its national council to be held in Kozhikode, Kerala, later this month, the party leadership is holding its breath amidst talk that a veteran leader is considering moving a proposal at the council to seek the dissolution of the margdarshak mandal, a body that he is part of, which has not met even once since it was formed two years ago.
The BJP national council is scheduled to meet from September 23-25.
If delivered, the BJP veteran’s threat might not just be seen as an attempt by the leader to return from political oblivion, but as a severe blow to party president Amit Shah, who is considered responsible for dismantling all the institutions of collective decision-making in the party.
“The BJP constitution does not provide for the margdarshak mandal,” said a BJP leader considered to be close to former deputy prime minister LK Advani. “It was, therefore, imperative for Amit Shah to get his decision [to set up the body] ratified by the party’s national council.”
The leader added: “Neither could this be ratified nor could the margdarshak mandal hold any meeting after it was formed in August, 2014. This body must, therefore, be scrapped.”
Retirement room
The margdarshak mandal was formed in 2014 after Amit Shah took over as the president of the BJP. Party veterans Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were dropped from the Parliamentary Board and made part of this body. It was announced that these leaders would guide the party through the offices of the mandal.
Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Sigh were also part of the mandal, the focus was specifically on Advani and Joshi for whom the mandal was seen as a retirement room.
Ever since the mandal’s formation, Advani and Joshi have generally been kept out of the decision-making process of the BJP. However, unlike the ailing Vajpayee, both these leaders are members of the Lok Sabha and have regularly attended Parliament and party meetings, where they have kept a low profile.
According to a person with knowledge of the proposed action, one of the members of the margdarshak mandal may move a proposal seeking the dissolution of the body in the party’s national executive, which will meet on September 23 before the BJP national council formally begins.
Brewing resentment
After the formation of the margdarshak mandal, the only time Advani and Joshi spoke up publicly was in November last year when they, together with party veterans Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha, issued a lacerating statement on the BJP’s dismal performance in the Bihar Assembly elections, giving a massive jolt to the party leadership.
“The results of Bihar election show that no lesson has been learnt from the fiasco in Delhi [Assembly elections],” the statement said.
It added: “To say everyone is responsible for the defeat in Bihar is to ensure no one is held responsible. It shows those who would have appropriated credit are bent on shrugging off responsibility for the disastrous showing in Bihar.”
The BJP leadership was quick to issue a counter statement that said: “They [Vajpayee and Advani] had set a healthy precedent of the party collectively taking up responsibility for victories and defeats. The party would certainly welcome any guidance and suggestion of our seniors in this regard.”
Despite the counter statement, which was signed by Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari, the BJP could not hide the fact that it was struggling with widespread resentment against the party leadership.
According to people in the know, the party leadership fears that the proposal to seek the dissolution of the margdarshak mandal might rekindle the resentment of those who are feeling sidelined.
The BJP’s metamorphosis from a multi-leader party to a single-leader one, and the collapse of all the institutions of collective decision-making under Amit Shah have created considerable resentment in the party rank and file. A fuelling of this resentment is the last thing the BJP president will want to see at Kozhikode.
