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Rallying Point

A calculated effort to establish Vinay Katiyar as an effective chief of the BJP state unit in Uttar Pradesh pays off. India Today's Subhash Mishra explains why.

If there's one thing that the rallies of BJP national president Venkaiah Naidu in Varanasi and Kanpur last week achieved, it was to establish Vinay Katiyar as the party president in Uttar Pradesh.

Belying fears about his ability to draw crowds in the state, the leader from the South not only addressed packed audiences but also managed to lift the morale of the rank and file of the party which had taken a severe beating after its crushing defeat in the last assembly elections. The huge turnout at the two rallies addressed by Naidu, and other senior leaders, including Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra, Om Prakash Singh and Katiyar, proved that Katiyar, contrary to what many believed, was a capable
organiser of mass programmes.

Better known as Bajrangi—he was the founder-president of the Bajrang Dal—Katiyar had publicly vowed after taking over as the youngest state president of the party to resurrect the party and give a fresh look to the organisation. In his first operation to rid the party of the deadwood, he has decided to ease out the
three controversial general secretaries-Ram Pyare Pandey, Jai Prakash Singh and Hridayanath Singh. The three were being widely accused of turning into parallel power centres with the regions that they were in charge of becoming their fiefdom.

To avoid any controversy, Katiyar has decided not to sack them directly. Instead, he plans to give them assignments outside the state in Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chattishgarh. For more than 10 years, no party president could muster the courage to
disturb these "power centres". Om Prakash Singh did try during his brief stint but the organising secretaries ganged up against him, leading to his departure from the post. "It is the first step
to bring an end to factionalism and nepotism in the party," commented a senior functionary. As part of the clean-up,
Katiyar has also targeted those who managed to get plum posts in the organisation. For example, Nanak Chand Gupta, heading the traders' cell of the organisation, was summarily sacked from the party on charges of indiscipline and financial irregularities.

Assisted by Hridayanath Dixit and Vindhyasini Kumar, Katiyar plans to introduce several new faces at the district level. His main problem, however, remains tackling the issue of infighting. For more than seven years now, those in the organisation have been at loggerheads with those in the government. Be it the Kalraj Mishra-Kalyan Singh or the Kalraj Mishra-Rajnath Singh combine, the organisation and the government squandered their energy in establishing their supremacy with casteism and infighting spilling on to the streets of the state capital.

After the formation of the Mayawati-led coalition government too, there was lack of coordination between the BJP ministers and the party. But after Katiyar took up the reins, he formally assigned senior ministers Om Prakash Singh and Lalji Tandon to address grievances of the party workers with the Government. This effort has to a great extent silenced the simmering workers of the BJP. Mayawati's meetings with BJP MLAs and party office-bearers also helped.

Katiyar himself has a good rapport with Mayawati and the two often converse on telephone over issues of cooperation. Perhaps, it is this which influenced the chief minister in reverting decisions on controversial issues like the installation of the Periyar statue, reservation in sports colleges and hostels and free distribution of books to SC students. To further address the problems of workers, Katiyar ensured that Om Prakash Singh Tandon and other senior minister of the BJP were present at the party office from time to time. "Many of the complaints of the workers can be solved once they meet their ministers directly without going through the official channels in the Secretariat," says Dixit.
Similarly to re-energise the grassroots workers, Katiyar is holding training camps all over the state headquarters or districts, interact with workers, and try to solve their problems. Katiyar himself is extensively touring the state.

Trying to set the BJP house in order, Katiyar is also struggling to overcome the problem of the upper caste and OBC divide. It is a great challenge for him to unite the party under one umbrella because for years, the party has been riddled with casteism. To make inroads in the Most Backward Caste and Dalit votebanks, the party leadership has decided to set up the Deendayal Upadhyaya Antodaya cell from the state level down to the district level.

On another plane, Katiyar is planning to launch an austerity drive and has asked senior leaders of the party to travel either by bus or by normal cars. The hiring of AC taxis from travel has been banned, thus saving Rs 1 lakh per month. "If our workers or leaders would travel by bus, they would be able to come in greater contact with the masses," explains Katiyar. Concerned over the mismanagement of party accounts, he adds, "It is for this reason that for the first time private teams are being sent to party offices at the district level for audit of the accounts. There has been no audit of the party accounts for the past 10 years." The new leadership, it is hoped, will change all that and set a new trend.

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