ND Tiwari, the oldest and arguably most controversial Congress leader in Uttarakhand, extended his support to the BJP on Wednesday, marking yet another interesting chapter in his long and colourful political life.

The BJP rolled out the red carpet for the three-time Uttar Pradesh CM and one-time Uttarakhand CM as a package deal with his newly-accepted biological son Rohit Shekhar. Another Tiwari favourite, former minister in his Cabinet Indira Hridyesh, is also expected to join the BJP.

Though Tiwari has not officially joined the BJP, his support for the Uttarakhand polls marks the BJP’s 12th import from the Congress. The other 11 include former Uttarakhand CM Vijay Bahuguna.

Caste equations

The BJP’s reasons for adopting the 91-year-old Tiwari — when the party has an unwritten rule about retiring everyone above 75 — are to do with righting the caste arithmetic in the hill State.

Tiwari provides a notable Kumaoni Brahmin face to a party which doesn’t have the appropriate caste representative for the Kumaon region.

Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, former Chief Minister, is a Thakur. BC Khanduri and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, both former chief ministers, are Brahmins but belong to the Garhwal region.

Also, in the list of 64 candidates released by the BJP so far, only 11 Brahmins have been fielded.

In short, in a State with the highest percentage of Brahmins anywhere in the country — about 20 per cent, according to a 2007 survey by the Centre for Study of Developing Societies — the BJP has not fielded enough candidates from the community.

However, for the nonagenarian who had to quit his last post as Governor of Andhra Pradesh following a sleazy scandal involving a sex CD with three women, this is an opportunity to finally do something to promote his son Rohit.

Rohit had had to fight a bitter paternity suit, undergo a DNA test and bring in a High Court intervention before Tiwari finally accepted him as his son. He “adopted” Rohit and married his mother Ujjwala Sharma at the ripe age of 88 after much controversy.

Tiwari had been seeking a Congress nomination for Rohit. Denied that, he walked into BJP president Amit Shah’s residence in his trademark Gandhi cap and promised his support after having bargained for BJP ticket for his son from Bhimtal.

While BJP workers protested at ticket allotment to Rohit, a political nobody, it was a subdued culmination to a stunning political career for Tiwari, that started with the freedom movement.

Early start

The son of a government official in the forest department in Kumaon, Tiwari became politically active early on, getting arrested in 1942 for penning anti-British leaflets. He spent time in Nainital jail along with his father Poornand Tiwari, who too had joined the freedom movement and quit his job.

After two years in jail, Tiwari joined Allahabad University. He was president of the Allahabad Students Union when the country became independent.

His first election was in 1952, when he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Praja Samajwadi Party.

Tiwari joined the Congress in 1963 and went on to achieve great heights, having served as Chief Minister of India’s most populous State, UP, for three terms.

He was, in fact, the last Chief Minister of the Congress in UP when his term ended in December 1988.

The veteran also served as a Union Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.

He became Chief Minister of Uttarakhand in 2002 and remains the only CM to have completed his term in the volatile politics of that State.

But he would be most remembered for the trail of controversies he left behind including the sex scandal and the bitter paternity suit he fought with Rohit.

The latest ‘friendship’ with the BJP is, in a sense, a befitting end to a political career that has been languishing in ignominy for the last several years.

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