Notwithstanding the flak it received for inducting the former Minister of Uttar Pradesh Babu Singh Kushwaha and criticism by a section of its own leaders itself, the Bharatiya Janata Party is playing the OBC card in a bid to wriggle out of the tight spot it was in, as well as for electoral gains in the coming Assembly polls.
In a statement issued on Thursday, party's State unit president Surya Pratap Shahi described Mr. Kushwaha as “leader of the Backward Classes [ pichhrhe varg ke neta ].” He said Mr. Kushwaha's joining the party had rattled the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party.
(Incidentally, the former Family Welfare Minister, who started of as an office secretary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram and went on to become an MLC and an influential Minister in the Mayawati regime, was never considered a Backward Classes leader though he belonged to the Kushwaha OBCs, who form around 4 per cent of the State population).
Referring to the inter-State raids by the CBI, including at the residence of Mr. Kushwaha, Mr. Shahi said: “The quick decision to order action by the CBI amounted to stifling the voice of the Backward Classes [by the Congress, BSP and the SP] in a bid to gain the votes of one section.”
He accused the Congress of misusing the CBI by ordering raids for electoral gains. The BJP would “oppose the one-sided action of the CBI and ensure that justice was delivered to the Backward Classes,” he said.
Mr. Shahi was present at the time of Mr. Kushwaha joining the party in Delhi on Tuesday and it is believed that he and BJP president Nitin Gadkari, along with party general secretary Vinay Katiyar, were instrumental in the formerMinister's entry into the party.
The induction of Mr. Kushwaha, an accused in the National Rural Health Mission irregularities case, has exposed deep divisions in the BJP, with a section condemning the decision.
BJP MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Aditya Nath said there was no place for corrupt persons in the party. I.P. Singh, a member of the State executive of the BJP, was suspended by Mr. Shahi for criticising the induction of Mr. Kushwaha. He has been served with a show-cause and given 15 days time to submit his reply.
Meanwhile, the BJP's ‘whistle-blower' against corruption in the BSP regime, Kirit Somaiya, issued a fresh release on Thursday demanding a CBI investigation into alleged bogus firms floated by Chief Minister Mayawati's “ friends and family.”
Interestingly, the two-page handout does not mention Mr. Kushwaha's name, although Mr. Somaiya had charged the former Minister with graft.
The statement simply mentions the NRHM scam as one of the various scams of the Mayawati government exposed by the BJP in 2011.
