The Hindu : BJP may bend policy to favour Ananth Kumar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 11, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

BJP may bend policy to favour Ananth Kumar

By A. Jayaram

Bangalore July 10. There seems to be no immediate prospect of the new President of the State unit of the BJP, Ananth Kumar, being asked to resign from the Union Cabinet.

He may be allowed to continue in the Cabinet for some more months, at least till September, according to party sources.

Mr. Kumar, who is the Union Minister for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, may continue to hold both the offices for two more months (September), it is said. His dual role may even continue longer till the elections to the Assemblies in the four northern States. The term of the Delhi Legislative Assembly will expire on December 13, that of Rajasthan on January 3, 2004, and those of Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh on January 31, 2004. However, elections in these four States are likely to be held at the same time.

The BJP has been following the policy of one man, one post. The President of the Madhya Pradesh unit of the party, Uma Bharati, and that of the Rajasthan unit, Vasundhara Raje, resigned from the NDA Ministry after being appointed to head the party organisation. The former Union Law Minister, Jana Krishnamurthy, resigned as President of the BJP once he was drafted into the Union Cabinet. Can exception not be made in the case of Mr. Kumar is the question.

Party sources are of the view that it will be no surprise if the BJP decides against any changes in the Union Council of Ministers till the Assembly elections in the four northern States. It is being stated that even the S.M. Krishna Government in the State might favour Mr. Kumar's continuation as a member of the Union Cabinet as he has not hesitated to espouse the cause of the State on various issues including inter-State disputes. He has been lending a helping hand to the State in securing approval or support from the Centre for projects such as the Devanahalli international airport and the Bangalore Metro railway project.

If Mr. Ananth Kumar quits the Union Cabinet, the only other BJP member of the Lok Sabha who could be in the reckoning as a replacement is the senior MP for Mangalore, V. Dhananjay Kumar. He was a Cabinet minister in the short-lived first Vajpayee government formed in May 1996. But in 1998, he agreed to work as a Union Minister of State, whereas Mr. Ananth Kumar was straightaway appointed to the Union Cabinet at the age of 38. Mr. Dhananjay Kumar was replaced by the MP for Bijapur, Basavaraj Patil Yatnal, as a Minister of State. Mr. Dhananjay Kumar scores over Mr. Ananth Kumar in other aspects of seniority too. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1983.

Of the other four BJP members of the Lok Sabha from Karnataka, Vijay Sankeshwar (Dharwad North) has quit the party though he has not resigned his Lok Sabha seat. Technically, he continues to be a BJP MP although he has floated a regional party. The other three are the veteran MP Ramachandra Veerappa (Bidar SC), G. Mallikarjunappa (Davangere), and D.C. Srikantappa (Chikmagalur), none of whom has been a minister either in the State or at the Centre.

Although the BJP has in M. Rajasekhara Murthy a person with administrative experience both in the State and the Centre, he has isolated himself from the party.

He has himself not chosen to quell the talk that but for the anti-defection law, he would have rejoined the Congress or entered the JD(S). The other BJP member of the Rajya Sabha from the State is M. Venkaiah Naidu, the party President. Though elected from the State Assembly, he is an expatriate for all purposes. Some Congress leaders have demanded his resignation on the ground that he had failed to support the State in disputes with his home State, Andhra Pradesh. Karnataka had a similar experience with Ram Jethmalani, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha from the State Assembly in 1986, and the earlier non-Karnataka members of the Lok Sabha from the State, Ajit Prasad Jain (Tumkur, 1962) and C.M. Stephen (Gulbarga, 1980). While Indira Gandhi was expelled from the Lok Sabha after her election from Chikmagalur in 1978, Sonia Gandhi resigned her Bellary seat in 1999.

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