Lucknow a test for Rajnath, the strategist
For the residents of Lucknow, the sharpest image of Rajnath Singh is that of the state’s chief minister during 2000-2002, straddling across the political scenario with sleeves of his white kurta folded in his trade mark style.
He is quite different from the two BJP MPs Lucknow has seen – the poet-at-heart Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the benign Babuji next door, Lalji Tandon.
As long as former Prime Minister Vajpayee represented Lucknow in Lok Sabha – for four terms since 1991 – residents of the state capital used to feel privileged, a feeling that had diminished somewhat when BJP veteran, Tandon was a member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council for two terms (1978–84) and a member of Legislative Assembly for three terms (1996–2009). He was chosen by the party to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha election, which he won by a margin of about 40,000 votes, defeating Rita Bahuguna Joshi of the Congress.
Now, Joshi, an MLA from Lucknow (cantonment), is pitted against Rajnath Singh, and the contest is all set to acquire dimensions of caste, community, government employees’ preference, outsider tag and Singh’s past record in Lucknow.
Tandon has been an easily accessible politician, identified even with sorting out street-level disputes in the old Lucknow area of Chowk. Tandon also had very good terms with leaders of all parties - Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati treated him as her rakhi brother, and Mulayam Singh Yadav referred to him with respect. But even then Tandon could not help his son Gopal Tandon win the Lucknow North Assembly seat in the 2012 election, severely denting his image.
It had long been speculated that Rajnath, and not Tandon, would contest from Lucknow in 2014 for two reasons – Lucknow was a safe seat for Singh as he was reluctant to seek re-election from Ghaziabad, and secondly, Tandon was not expected to put up too much of a resistance to the move.
But for Rajnath, it may not be a cakewalk despite the perceived wave in BJP’s favour. He had failed to ensure BJP victory from any of the five Assembly segments from Ghaziabad in 2012. Singh was also known as a disciplinarian and during his regime, had imposed several regulations regarding punctuality and presence in office for state government employees. This did not make him popular with government employees and in private conversations they remember it. Unlike Tandon, Singh has not been very accessible during his Lucknow visits to even BJP workers.
While Singh may not enjoy the wide support of Muslims in old Lucknow, especially of the Shia community that Tandon did, he is likely to get support from other castes and communities as the three others in the fray – Samajwadi Party’s Ashok Bajpai, BSP’s Nakul Dubey and Rita Bahuguna Joshi – are Brahmins. And of course, he is banking to gain advantage from the prevailing strong anti-Congress sentiment.
The tough-talking Thakur leader from the east UP district of Chandauli is remembered for two most talked-about decisions taken by him – the anti-copying law and the reservation for the most backward castes (MBCs).
As the education minister in the Kalyan Singh government (1991-92), Singh had proposed the Anti-copying Act to curb the rampant copying in the UP Board’s class X and class XII examinations. It had caused a setback to organized copying in the board examinations but cost the BJP high on popularity. Expectedly, when Mulayam Singh Yadav came to power in an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party in 1994, the first thing he did after taking over to revoke this law.
Later in 2000, the BJP was under great pressure to replace an ailing Ram Prakash Gupta who had gained notoriety by reportedly falling asleep at a meeting where Microsoft chief Bill Gates was speaking. Singh had to do a lot of damage control and he had gone about pleasing all sections. His most significant move was to introduce a quota for the Most Backward Castes (MBC) among the OBCs and the Scheduled Castes following the recommendations of the Hukum Singh Committee, which submitted its report within a month of its constitution. Later, however, the Supreme Court stayed the ordinance.
Singh was also known as strong opponent of the BJP’s ‘friendship’ with Mayawati, and it was widely believed that the BJP’s collaboration with BSP to form government (in 1995, 1997 and 2002) was largely because of the insistence of Lalji Tandon.
Another interesting example of Singh’s grip on the political situation of the moment was in 1997 when he played a key role in saving the Kalyan Singh government by luring MLAs from the Janata Dal, the Congress and the BSP. One year later, he showed a similar grip by
Then in 1998, when Jagdambika Pal, then with the Loktantrik Congress Party, managed to gather the support of some small parties, helped by a helpful state governor Romesh Bhandari, ousted Kalyan Singh as chief minister, it was Singh who hurriedly ensured the transfer of the MLAs to be taken from Lucknow to Delhi to mount pressure on the Centre to undo Bhandari’s action.
He is quite different from the two BJP MPs Lucknow has seen – the poet-at-heart Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the benign Babuji next door, Lalji Tandon.
As long as former Prime Minister Vajpayee represented Lucknow in Lok Sabha – for four terms since 1991 – residents of the state capital used to feel privileged, a feeling that had diminished somewhat when BJP veteran, Tandon was a member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council for two terms (1978–84) and a member of Legislative Assembly for three terms (1996–2009). He was chosen by the party to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha election, which he won by a margin of about 40,000 votes, defeating Rita Bahuguna Joshi of the Congress.
Now, Joshi, an MLA from Lucknow (cantonment), is pitted against Rajnath Singh, and the contest is all set to acquire dimensions of caste, community, government employees’ preference, outsider tag and Singh’s past record in Lucknow.
Tandon has been an easily accessible politician, identified even with sorting out street-level disputes in the old Lucknow area of Chowk. Tandon also had very good terms with leaders of all parties - Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati treated him as her rakhi brother, and Mulayam Singh Yadav referred to him with respect. But even then Tandon could not help his son Gopal Tandon win the Lucknow North Assembly seat in the 2012 election, severely denting his image.
It had long been speculated that Rajnath, and not Tandon, would contest from Lucknow in 2014 for two reasons – Lucknow was a safe seat for Singh as he was reluctant to seek re-election from Ghaziabad, and secondly, Tandon was not expected to put up too much of a resistance to the move.
But for Rajnath, it may not be a cakewalk despite the perceived wave in BJP’s favour. He had failed to ensure BJP victory from any of the five Assembly segments from Ghaziabad in 2012. Singh was also known as a disciplinarian and during his regime, had imposed several regulations regarding punctuality and presence in office for state government employees. This did not make him popular with government employees and in private conversations they remember it. Unlike Tandon, Singh has not been very accessible during his Lucknow visits to even BJP workers.
While Singh may not enjoy the wide support of Muslims in old Lucknow, especially of the Shia community that Tandon did, he is likely to get support from other castes and communities as the three others in the fray – Samajwadi Party’s Ashok Bajpai, BSP’s Nakul Dubey and Rita Bahuguna Joshi – are Brahmins. And of course, he is banking to gain advantage from the prevailing strong anti-Congress sentiment.
The tough-talking Thakur leader from the east UP district of Chandauli is remembered for two most talked-about decisions taken by him – the anti-copying law and the reservation for the most backward castes (MBCs).
As the education minister in the Kalyan Singh government (1991-92), Singh had proposed the Anti-copying Act to curb the rampant copying in the UP Board’s class X and class XII examinations. It had caused a setback to organized copying in the board examinations but cost the BJP high on popularity. Expectedly, when Mulayam Singh Yadav came to power in an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party in 1994, the first thing he did after taking over to revoke this law.
Later in 2000, the BJP was under great pressure to replace an ailing Ram Prakash Gupta who had gained notoriety by reportedly falling asleep at a meeting where Microsoft chief Bill Gates was speaking. Singh had to do a lot of damage control and he had gone about pleasing all sections. His most significant move was to introduce a quota for the Most Backward Castes (MBC) among the OBCs and the Scheduled Castes following the recommendations of the Hukum Singh Committee, which submitted its report within a month of its constitution. Later, however, the Supreme Court stayed the ordinance.
Singh was also known as strong opponent of the BJP’s ‘friendship’ with Mayawati, and it was widely believed that the BJP’s collaboration with BSP to form government (in 1995, 1997 and 2002) was largely because of the insistence of Lalji Tandon.
Another interesting example of Singh’s grip on the political situation of the moment was in 1997 when he played a key role in saving the Kalyan Singh government by luring MLAs from the Janata Dal, the Congress and the BSP. One year later, he showed a similar grip by
Then in 1998, when Jagdambika Pal, then with the Loktantrik Congress Party, managed to gather the support of some small parties, helped by a helpful state governor Romesh Bhandari, ousted Kalyan Singh as chief minister, it was Singh who hurriedly ensured the transfer of the MLAs to be taken from Lucknow to Delhi to mount pressure on the Centre to undo Bhandari’s action.
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