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| Frontier 23 July 1977 |
NK SINGH
During the recent bickering on the issue
of ministry formation, the erstwhile socialist group alleged that the Chief
Minister, Kailash Joshi, was a captive chief minister acting on the dictates of
the Jana Sangh ‘caucus’. If he is, no one but the socialists are to blame for it.
At the time of the election of the
leader of the Janata legislature party, the socialist support was instrumental
in tilting the balance overnight in the favour of the Joshi, a Jana Sangh man.
His only opponent, V.K.Sakhlecha, also from Jana Sangh, who was going very
strong at the moment, had to bow out of the contest.
That made Joshi, although he was a Jana
Sangh man, something of a socialist nominee!
However, with the withdrawal of
socialist support, Joshi had to lean heavily on the group led by Sakhlecha in
his fight against the rebel group. An excellent political strategist, Sakhlecha
has become de facto chief minister of the State.
Joshi is now fully in the grip of
Sakhlecha and company, whom the socialist group refers to as the ‘caucus’.
Earlier, the unanimous election of
Joshi, 48, with his RSS background, as the leader of the Janata legislature party
had come as a complete surprise to political observers who were looking forward
to a fierce contest for chief ministership in the State.
In fact, the battle lines had been drawn
and the party leadership had made all the necessary arrangements to conduct the
election by secret ballot.
But in an unexpected development, the
only other contender for leadership, Sakhlecha, a sitting Jana Sangh member of
the Rajya Sabha who was also elected in the recent assembly election, withdrew
from the race when the balance swung overnight in favour of Joshi.
Sakhlecha, it was obvious from the very
beginning, had sought to enter State politics with eyes on chief ministership.
It was in this background that a furore had been created over his candidature
for the State Assembly.
While the Jana Sangh wanted to give him
a ticket for the a Vidhan Sabha seat, the socialists unsuccessfully opposed his
nomination on the ostensible ground that he had been out on parole – allegedly
by hobnobbing with the Congress – for several months during the Emergency.
During the recent bickering, the
socialists again raised this question; they said they were not as much
concerned about the ministerial quota for their party as the fact that a man
with a shady past had been included in the cabinet.
Before the elections, there were quite a
few contenders for chief ministership but they were bumped off by the
electorate. Among these were Congress(Organisation), veteran Moolchand
Deshlahera, who is known in the State
politics for his controversial role in the defeat of former chief minister
Kailash Nath Katju, and Mr S.S. Vishnar, who jumped on the Congress For Democracy(CFD) bandwagon only on the eve of the assembly poll. But both lost security
deposits at the hand of their Congress rivals.
Significantly, whatever discomfiture the
Janata Party suffered in the State was in respect of CFD candidates who joined
it late.
The Jana Sangh group now says that the
socialists are talking in terms of group representation and they have not
merged their identity completely.
But it was the Jana Sangh group itself
which had staked its claim for chief ministerial office on the ground that of
the 230 members of the Janata Party in the 320 members House, 150 belonged to
the former Jana Sangh.
Though Joshi was also in the fray, by
all available indications Sakhelcha was going strong. It was at this juncture
that the socialists decided to act as the balancing force and declared their
support for Joshi.
Mr Sakhelcha was informed of the new
situation a few hours before the elections meeting. Accepting his defeat
gracefully, he himself proposed Joshi’s name for leadership.
And so, out goes the Congress, which had
ruled the State for two decades except for a brief spell of
Samyukt Vidhayak Dal (SVD) coalition rule.
That was ten years ago. The ramshackle
SVD regime had come to power through horse-trading and political defections
that toppled the then Chief Minister, D.P.Mishra.
Once in 1962 too, the Congress was on
the verge of being ousted from power when it failed to get a clear majority.
But it engineered defections and managed to form a government.
Unlike in the past, the second
non-Congress government has an electoral mandate secured in no uncertain terms.
Whether it will be able to retain that mandate is another matter.
Infighting over ministry-formation has
lowered the image of the party.
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