BJP’s sneha sammelan turns sour; workers rough-up Kirit Somaiyya

Eyewitnesses invited to a dinner organised by the Khetwadi unit of the party at Ladbadi near C P Tank in South Mumbai on Friday were treated to this major spectacle of hot tempers and frayed nerves among large sections of BJP workers that led to the denouement.

Among others invited to the dinner were Mehta, Minister of State for Housing Raj Purohit (who came after the fracas was over), BJP spokeserpson Prakash Jawdekar and local MLA Mohan Raichura. Mehta and Raichura, apparently sensing the ugly mood among the party workers, vanished for a time. Soon after their disappearance, a minor scuffle broke out among different factions of party workers.

ments are done through the RRB and are advertized. In this case, this wasn’t done.”

The eight employees are: Yogender Paswan, Jatinder Kaur, Rajinder Kaur, Sriman Narain Singh, Prem Sagar, Naresh Kataria and Davinder Singh and Pratima Misra. Sources said that most of these candidates were Paswan’s personal staff — working at his office and residence — but were shown working with Delhi, Ambala, Firozpur and Allahabad divisions for the past two years.

According to veteran political observer Kaushal Sharma, who was present during the fracas, the entire exercise of imposing an executive on the Khetwadi unit at this juncture was geared to defeating Mehta at the coming Lok Sabha elections. “The attempt was to cause dissensions so that there is division among workers. Some vested interests within the BJP wish to see Mehta defeated this time so that they can claim the ticket for themselves at the next elections,” Sharma stold The Indian Express.

There are other party units where no executive could be either elected or appointed despite organisational polls in October 1997. “Party workers are wondering why South Mumbai was singled out when even North East Mumbai units (where Mahjan is the sitting MP) has similar vacancies. Even in south Mumbai, Mumbadevi continues without an executive. So there are mutterings about a conspiracy,” Sharma said. Reliable sources said that the Khetwadi unit had decided on Friday morning that the appointments would be kept in abeyance and this was conveyed to party orgnaisation secretary Raghunath Kulkarni who concurred. However, Somaiyya allegedly turned down this consensus and reportedly said, “I am the president. And what I says goes. The announcements must be made this evening.”

This was the spark to the tinder but Somaiyya’s allegedly hostile reaction to a pointed question from one worker finally led to his roughing-up. In his attempts to calm down their tempers he said, “This is a party of workers and not of mantri-tantris (ministers or leaders). And I respect all of you.” This brought forth an immediate repartee, “How can you respect us when you showed scant consideration for Wamanrao Parab who was almost like a father to you and all of us?”

The reference was to the circumstnaces under which Somiayya became an MLA. The seat was held by old RSS hand Wamanrao Parab and he was deliberately cut out of the list in 1995 make room for Somaiyya. Parab, who could never get over the slight, has since been expelled from the BJP for alleged anti-party activities. As party workers walked out, Somaiyya and other leaders calmly continued their discussions into the night. This morning the BJP city unit went ahead and formalised the Khetwadi appointments.