Govindacharya losses key organisational secy post

Govindacharya’s loss means gains for two other general secretaries, Narendra Modi and Venkaiah Naidu. Modi has been given charge of five Northern States while Naidu has been rewarded with several important assignments like coordination between the party and the Government, elections, Parliamentary Board and two key states – Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, both going to polls later this year.

Govindacharya is learnt to have incurred Prime Minister A BVajpayee’s wrath by criticising the BJP-led Government at the Centre at a convention held in Mumbai last month by the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), students wing of the Sangh Parivar.

He was among the few in the BJP to have endorsed Swadeshi Jagran Manch’s (SJM) open criticism of Government’s policy on Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) and the Patents Bills.

At ABVP’s convention in Mumbai, Govindacharya endorsed the views expressed by a former ABVP office-bearer terming the Vajpayee Government desh ki sabse nikammi sarkar" (country’s most inefficient Government).

Vajpayee referred to the incident during his valedictory address at the BJP’s Bangalore national executive meet on January 3 saying that people who kept mum when his Government was being called most inefficient, were today attending the convention. The Prime Minister added that it is these party leaders who contribute in degrading party’s image among the public.

Besides Vajpayee, Govindacharya had also angered partychief Kushabhau Thakre, especially due to his handling of dissidence in Bihar. Thakre and Govindacharya reported had a difference of opinion over some key decisions during the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, especially the one about projection of Chief Ministerial candidate.

When Thakre decided to induct his close confidante, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Sunder Lal Patwa, as national vice-president and gave him the charge of politically sensitive state, Uttar Pradesh, it revealed the existing bitterness between him and Govindacharya.

Govindacharya’s insistence to stick to his decision is leant to have annoyed almost the entire top party brass, especially Thakre who initially wanted to groom him as the next party chief by appointing him as organisational secretary.

The post of organisational secretary was formed originally in BJP’s parent party, Bhartiya Jana Sangh (BJS) and was held by the party ideologue, Din Dayal Upadhyaya before it merged with Janata Party in 1977.

The post wasrevived with revival of BJS as BJP in 1981 and BJP vice-president, Sunder Singh Bhandari, was given the charge before he gave way to Kushabhau Thakre himself. The post is considered a stepping stone for the top post in the party and was lying vacant since Thakre was elevated as party president in March last year.