BJP without Khurana

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, August 20

The decision of the BJP central leadership to suspend Madan Lal Khurana for “gross indiscipline” has hardly come as a surprise to the rank and file of the BJP in Delhi. “It was very much on the cards after he started demanding the resignation of the party president L.K. Advani,” said a senior BJP leader here.

Party insiders say that what proved to be the last straw on the camel’s back was his latest letter to the BJP president and his alleged hobnobbing with the dissidents in two states – Gujarat and Jharkhand. “The party has pre-empted any damage by removing Khurana,” said the leader.

Khurana on Saturday hinted that he was in touch with the dissidents in both these states. In Jharkhand, the dissidents led by former Finance and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha are demanding the removal of chief minister Arjun Munda. In Gujarat, the dissidents are led by Keshubhai Patel and they are lobbying for the removal of Narendra Modi.

Earlier in the day, Khurana told HT that when the BJP president L.K. Advani would land at Gandhi Nagar, the group owing allegiance to Patel would boycott him. He also admitted that he was in touch with Yashwant Sinha on the developments in Jharkhand.

Without revealing his strategy, Khurana said that he was planning “something big” next week. What he hinted was perhaps some major political developments in these two states. Interestingly, trouble is brewing even in Madhya Pradesh, the third BJP ruled state. However, Khurana was not backing the Uma Bharti group here.

Party veterans are divided on what course of action would Khurana take after the suspension. A section of the Delhi unit feels that he might float a regional outfit but another section feels that he is quite cosy with the Congress and might go the Narayan Rane way in Maharshtra.

Khurana himself was non-committal to any political move. Contacted by HT after his suspension, the 69-year old “Delhi strongman” said that he would go through the suspension letter first. “I will reply to the charges leveled against me,” he told HT. (2005)

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, August 20

Khurana was quite comfortable in the party till mid 1996. At that time, he had to resign as Chief Minister of Delhi as his name had figured in the havala episode. His friction with the BJP leadership began soon after and continued till his expulsion on Saturday.

After his name was cleared from the havala case and the diary entries were found to be bogus, he started lobbying to become the chief minister of Delhi once again. However, at that time, Sahib Singh Verma was firmly in the saddle and the BJP leadership refused to entertain his plea.

Towards the end of 1998, Khurana once again wanted to be the CM when the BJP leadership hinted of removing Verma. However, it was Sushma Swaraj who was sworn in as the CM and led the party to the polls on the election dominated by the onion price hike issue. The party lost badly.

Since then, Khurana was on the wrong side of the group owing allegiance to L.K. Advani. He never got along with either Verma or Swaraj since then. In Delhi, the trio of Khurana-Malhotra and Sahni too was broken with new leaders taking over.

He became the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism in the Atal Behari Vajpayee Cabinet in 1999. He resigned following the Graham Steines murder case in Orissa and anti-Christian violence in Gujarat a year and half later. He described the murder of Steines and his children as cruelty which no religion can tolerate. As Dara Singh, the main accused, was from the sangh parivar, this action on part of Khurana was not taken lightly by the parivar.

Since then, he has been in the political doldrums. Privately, he blamed Advani and the coterie around him for his political plight.

He was brought as Delhi BJP president in 2003, six months before the assembly elections in December. At that time both Advani and the then Union UD Minister Ananth Kumar had promised that three issues of Delhi would be settled before the polls. These were regularisation of unauthorised colonies, legalising the extensions in the DDA flats and regularisation of industries operating from the residential areas.

Khurana was banking on the promises which were never kept. As these promises could not be fulfilled before the elections, BJP lost. Khurana again blamed Advani and his “advisers” for denying him what was his rightful claim – Delhi’s chief ministership.

Following the 2003 elections, Khurana was made to resign both his Lok Sabha and Assembly seats. He was made the Governor of Rajasthan and a political person like him itched to come back to Delhi.

After coming back, he started targeting Advani for the Jinnah remark. He went to the extent of describing the BJP as a “public limited company” and describing the coterie around the party president. The latest letter to Advani proved to be the breaking point, leading to his expulsion.

(2005)