Within 24-hours of forcing LK Advani to bow to the new leadership’s authority, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sent a terse message to senior leader Jaswant Singh by denying him ticket from his home constituency of Barmer, Rajasthan.
The treatment meted out to Jaswant Singh was decidedly rougher than Advani who was, at least superficially, indulged by the party. Although the BJP has finally forced Advani to contest from Gandhinagar against his wishes, it was done only after the party put up a show of offering him a choice. The spectacle of various leaders, including the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, lining up at Advani’s doorstep, was designed to make the veteran leader feel better about contesting from a seat he had not wanted.
But the BJP did not think it necessary to accord the same courtesy to Jaswant Singh. “Jaswant Singh is no Advani,” a party leader was heard saying. Although Singh has the potential to embarrass the party by contesting the Barmer seat as an independent candidate, the BJP seems prepared to face that eventuality. So the party on Friday announced from Barmer the candidature of an import from the Congress — Jat leader Sona Ram. Jaswant Singh and Vasundhara Raje have been rivals for a long time.
But Raje’s position has considerably improved in the recent months with a stupendous victory in the Assembly elections.