BJP fields Arun Nehru
To contest from Rae Bareli
From Shubhabrata Bhattacharya
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 10 — Mr Arun Nehru, scion of the Nehru family of Swaraj Bhawan, Allahabad, is the BJP candidate from Rae Bareli, a seat he won in a byelection in 1980 when Mrs Indira Gandhi chose him as her family’s nominee for the seat vacated by her as she had also won from Medak.

The announcement of his candidature did not come entirely as a surprise because over the past weekend it was being said he was being wooed by the ruling BJP as well as other elements of the National Democratic Alliance for contesting either from Rae Bareli — which he represented between 1980 and 1989 — Sitapur (which was represented for three terms from 1952 by his grandmother, Mrs Uma Nehru, wife of Shyam Lal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru’s cousin, the rural seat of Kanpur, which he represented in 1989-91, or from Kanpur City itself.

Former Union Cabinet Minister Arun Nehru, who has stayed away from politics for most part of this decade, told this correspondent earlier in the day, that he had been approached by political parties but did not wish to disclose anything at this stage.

Contacted soon after the announcement, Mr Nehru confirmed his candidature but did not want to say much. Apparently, he wants to keep his re-entry into the political arena a low key affair.

According to available information, two Cabinet colleagues of Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi of BJP and Mr George Fernandes (United Janada Dal) had met Mr Nehru over the past few days and pressed him to accept their respective offers for the party ticket.

By roping in Mr Nehru, the BJP and the NDA are hoping to take the sting out of the Congress campaign — they too will be able to lay claim to the Nehru legacy. The BJP and most NDA parties may have been opposed to Jawaharlal Nehru in his lifetime in their respective incarnations of the fifties and early sixties, but Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee takes pride in the Nehru legacy.

He had done so even as External Affairs Minister of the first-ever non-Congress government in 1977. (It may be recalled that in an interview with a leading weekly, Mr Vajpayee, when asked why the portrait of Nehru continued to dominate the foyer of the South Block office of the External Affairs Ministry, had replied: "This is my tribute to Nehru and assurance to the world about the continuity of India’s foreign policy.

The Nehru legacy is an excellent antidote to the communal-secular sabre-rattling. It also gives the BJP-NDA access to the much-needed stability and ability plank.

In the Nehru family tree, Jawaharlal Nehru’s father, Moti Lal Nehru and Nand Lal Nehru were brothers, both sons of Ganga Dhar Nehru. Mr Arun Nehru is the grandson of Nand Lal Nehru’s son, Shyam Lal Nehru, just as much as Rajiv Gandhi was the grandson of Moti Lal Nehru’s son, Jawaharlal Nehru. His grandfather, Shyam Lal Nehru, was a Member of the Constituent Assembly and his grandmother, Mrs Uma Nehru, was a Lok Sabha member for three terms from Sitapur. In 1962, after Mrs Uma Nehru’s death, Shyamkumari, her daughter, was made a member of the Rajya Sabha.

Mr Arun Nehru moved out of the family home in Allahabad to Lucknow for education at an early age and at the age of 20, he began a successful career in the corporate world, which he gave up at the age of 37 when Mrs Indira Gandhi asked him to join politics.

Mr Nehru was then the President of the Jenson and Nicholson group of companies. He, in fact, was one of the first young corporate wizards to have climbed such heights.

Mr Arun Nehru fell out with Rajiv Gandhi in 1984. He later joined hands with Mr V.P. Singh and, indeed, was the brain behind the formation of the Jan Morcha and later launching of the Janata Dal.

By roping in Mr Arun Nehru, the BJP-NDA establishment will in fact be having a second former Rajiv Gandhi associate in its ranks. Mr Arun Singh, who like Mr Nehru had given up his successful corporate career in Calcutta to join politics to be by the side of Rajiv Gandhi, is at present an adviser to the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh.

Indeed, with Mr Arun Nehru around, the BJP-NDA establishment will have four prominent persons with the name Arun, all with exceptional professional background. Besides Mr Arun Singh, Mr Arun Jaitley, a leading lawyer, is a BJP spokesman. Mr Arun Shourie is the party’s Rajya Sabha member.