Ticket to turncoats, kin has BJP cadre fuming

Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, January 16

BJP ticket seekers looked uncomfortable after the party central leadership announced ticket for Congress turncoats and their relatives this evening.

Former Congress leaders Yashpal Arya and Vijay Bahuguna have been rewarded for deserting the Congress and joining the BJP. Former Cabinet minister and Speaker Yashpal Arya has managed to get the ticket for himself from his old seat of Bajpur and also ensured the BJP ticket for his son Sanjeev Arya from Nainital.

On the other hand, former Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has managed to get the party ticket allotted to his younger son Saurabh Bahuguna from Sitarganj. The 10 rebels have managed to find a place in the list of 64 candidates released by the BJP today.

Yashpal Arya, his son Sanjeev Arya and Kedar Singh Rawat managed to get the ticket from Bajpur, Nainital and Yamunotri, respectively, within hours of their joining the BJP today.

The desertion of the Congress by Yashpal Arya and his son Sanjeev Arya was termed by BJP leaders as one that could strengthen the party ahead of the elections. But privately, the old timers are worried at the BJP now packed with former Congress leaders.

“This is not the party that my father had worked for. All these new entrants from the Cong

ress have bagged tickets. It is a gross opportunism on display and the Central leaders are supporting it. This is bound to affect the morale of party workers,” a BJP leader rued.

The seamless entry of MLAs in March last year, who had even been promised ticket in advance for the 2017 Assembly poll, and now the entry of Yashpal Arya and his son has upset the party workers.

“All these leaders were given important positions in the Congress and Arya was a former Speaker, Cabinet minister and president of the party for eight years. On the day the ticket were announced, he decided to quit the party becausethe chances of the Congress coming back to power are bleak. These are all political turncoats,” said Om Rawat, who was denied the party ticket from Narendra Nagar. He has now decided to fight as an independent.

For the Congress, the desertion of so many leaders, and of Yashpal Arya in particular, is a big blow. Even during the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, though the resurgent BJP had made its presence felt in the Garhwal and Kumaon regions, it had failed to dent the Congress in the state. It did not witness en mass exodus of leaders. But, once the power shifted to Harish Rawat in 2014, the desertion of leaders that started on March 18 last year continues to go on.

Significantly, the BJP, that spoke of principles, seems to have given ticket to sons and daughters of political leaders, a policy that it said was followed by the Congress and not the BJP.

Ritu Khanduri, daughter of Pauri MP BC Khanduri, has also been given the ticket.

“The principles seem to have been thrown out of the window when the party leaders decided to give ticket to Sanjeev Arya and Saurabh Bahuguna, who left the Congress and joined the BJP. Injustice has been meted out to us,” said Asha Nautiyal, a BJP hopeful for the Kedarnath Assembly seat ticket that has now gone to Shaila Rani Rawat.