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Vajpayee-Advani rift saved Ram Prakash Gupta

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta owes his survival to the on-going battle of supremacy in the Bharatiya Janata Party between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Union Home Minister Lal Kishen Advani.

In the past two months, Gupta made at least half a dozen visits to New Delhi to save his chief ministerial chair, which has been under constant threat of being snatched away from him, thanks to the vicious nature of the squabbles within the state unit.

The BJP leadership's (read Vajpayee's) decision to allow Gupta to continue is being interpreted as yet another setback for Advani, although how long Gupta will survive is anybody's guess considering the factionalism in the party.

Gupta's cabinet colleagues, notably Kalraj Mishra and Lalji Tandon, have been lobbying hard with the central leadership for the post.

However, Advani wanted Union Surface Transport Minister Rajnath Singh to replace Gupta. Advani is not the one to keep quiet for long and it is a foregone conclusion that the UP chief minister will have to constantly watch his back.

According to a party vice-president, the BJP's much-vaunted organisational discipline has taken a severe beating with party leaders, both at the central and state level, fighting tooth and nail to attain their ambition and objectives, however narrow they may be.

"If our party leaders had lived up to their promises of being its disciplined soldiers, la affaire Gupta would not have taken place at all. At least, the washing of dirty linen in public could have been avoided. Personal ambitions of our leaders have taken their toll on the party's image and we have no one but ourselves to blame," he said in an uncharacteristic display of candour.

However, party spokesman Venkaiah Naidu dismissed suggestions of any rift between the two senior leaders saying, "the media likes to believe all kinds of rumours and canards."

But facts suggest otherwise. The tug-of-war, which was initially witnessed during the Bihar crisis, when S S Bhandari was the state governor, has returned to haunt the BJP.

At that time, Advani wanted Bhandari to continue in the gubernatorial post in Bihar to 'tame' the state administration of Chief Minister Rabri Devi and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav. Vajpayee preferred to shift Bhandari to Gujarat rather than risk a constitutional crisis with his continuance in Bihar.

During the hijack drama involving Indian Airlines flight IC 814, Advani opposed the idea of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh accompanying the three released terrorists to Kandahar by a special flight. He argued that the release of the terrorists had grave implications for the nation's unity and integrity, apart from further encouraging terrorists in India.

But the prime minister had his way and the three terrorists were released in exchange for the hostages and the hijacked aircraft.

"Vajpayeeji is responsible for installing Guptaji as the chief minister. Therefore, it is his moral responsibility to give Guptaji the best possible deal. But with the hawks breathing down his neck, Guptaji will have to do something really spectacular to retain his job," a BJP general secretary pointed out.

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