Kanpur BJP edit: Atal out of Advani rally posters, then back in

Atal Bihari Vajpayee has just been sighted in and around Kanpur. After the Uttar Pradesh BJP gave the former Prime Minister a complete go-by in the run-up...

Atal Bihari Vajpayee has just been sighted in and around Kanpur.

After the Uttar Pradesh BJP gave the former Prime Minister a complete go-by in the run-up to prime ministerial candidate L K Advani’s June 27 rally, the local leadership, in a belated move, has started erecting hoardings with Atal’s pictures.

“This (hoardings without Atal’s pictures) is just not acceptable. It was the responsibility of the state BJP unit. They will have to include Ataljee’s pictures,” said a leader, close to Advani, when asked. Last week, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Ramapati Ram Tripathi had an ingenuous explanation to offer: “Ataljee hamare hriday mein baste hain” (Atal resides in our hearts). On Saturday, he told this paper that the hoardings did carry Atal pictures.

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The new cutouts, with Atal inscriptions, are embellished with a catchy slogan: “Ataljee ka yeh sandesh, Advani ko saupon desh (Atal’s message — give the reins of the country to Advani)”.

For a party that has turned sloganeering into an art, the message may just be apt. When Vajpayee became Bharatiya Jana Sangh president upon the death of Deendayal Upadhyaya, writes Advani in his memoirs, one slogan that fired the imagination of the party workers was “andhere mein ek chingari, atal bihari atal bihari (Atal is the only ray of hope in this darkness).

In the party’s national council meeting in Delhi in January this year, Atal’s picture was placed along side that of Deendayal Upadhyay and Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, thus suggesting that he had joined the pantheon of the party’s founding fathers (after having played out his innings). As the BJP finalises its Lok Sabha candidates’ list, its nominee from Lucknow, however, will be announced only after it’s cleared by Vajpayee.

“It was a blunder to erect hoardings without Ataljee’s picture. His picture must have been carried along with that of our prime ministerial candidate L K Advani,” said a senior leader. Another UP leader attributed the slip to the “local factional feud” in Kanpur. There have been reports of factionalism in the state BJP unit even as preparations are underway for Advani’s rally. While Advani had taken the lead in announcing Vajpayee’s name for the PM post in the party’s “Mumbai Mahadhiveshan” in 1995, the elder statesman blessed his deputy’s name for the PM post last year.