Rajasthan’s rebel leader Ghanshyam Tiwari’s new party to divide BJP votes

The thorn in the flesh of the Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and an embarrassment to the BJP, veteran leader and a former national executive member the saffron party Ghanshyam Tiwari’s decision to set up a new party, Bharat Vahini Party, is likely to harm the BJP and it may lead to BJP losing the upper-caste votes in the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha election.

Tiwari, a six time MLA, who served as the state unit’s vice president had been at loggerheads with the Chief Minister and her government for the past four-and-a-half years. Tiwari, who is a leader of the Brahmin community, picked up the cudgel against Vasundhara Raje ever since she did not include him in her Cabinet.

Tiwari was a minister in Vasundhara Raje’s Cabinet between 2003 to 2008 and was critical of Vasundhara even as a member of her Cabinet. Tiwari, a Bramhin, has been demanding reservation for the economically backward section among the upper castes.

Tiwari has been very critical of both the government and Chief Minister for her authoritarian attitude. He has been leveling corruption charges against Raje, especially when she chose to not move to the official residence of the Chief Minister and opted to stay in another bungalow. She then combined two large adjoining bungalows with hers and converted this into the CM’s official residence at a considerable cost to the state exchequer.

He alleged that the Chief Minister occupied the two bungalows to enable her stay there even if she is not the Chief Minister as the state government provides official accommodation to the former Chief minister. He complained against this stand of the Chief Minister even to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party chief Amit Shah.

To annoy Tiwari, Raje encouraged his rival in the Brahmin community, Ram Charan Bohra, by helping him win the Lok Sabha elections from Jaipur. Since then the tussle has turned bitter. Bohra even questioned Tiwari’s claim of being the leader of the Brahmin community. There are six percent Bramhin voters in the state who are basically believers in Hindutva and are BJP backers.

Apart from Tiwari, another BJP MLA Hanuman Beniwal is also a BJP rebel and has been a bitter critic of Vasundhara. He is a Jat and has been in touch with Tiwari and now while Tiwari is trying to woo the upper caste, Beniwal is trying to woo the strong farming community of Jats, against both the Congress and the BJP.

But Tiwari is on a sticky wicket as there are just nine Vidhan Sabha constituencies where Brahmins dominate as voters. In 18 other constituencies, Brahmins are either second or third largest in terms of numbers.

The Jats have backed the BJP in the last Vidhan sabha and Lok Sabha elections. But the Jat community is without a prominent or effective leader, but they are strongly placed in 70 out of 200 constituencies. Beniwal’s endeavour is to muster support of the Jats against both the Congress and the BJP. But, there is only one major opposition in the state and that is Congress. However, the BSP is trying to make its presence feel in the SC and ST seats.

The ruling BJP is facing the anti-incumbency factor and the new party floated by Tiwari would, at most, harm the electoral politics of the BJP as it could lose a large chunk of the Brahmin votes to Tiwari’s Bharat Vahini Party.

“The letter written by Tiwari to the BJP supremo Amit Shah is revealing. He has seen the government functioning from close quarters and before the BJP president, Tiwari has exposed the large scale corruption in the administration. The revelations of Tiwari has laid bare the BJP government and the Chief Minister. This will damage the BJP in a big way and the Congress would gain from it.” said Sachin Pilot, PCC chief.

Ashok Gehlot, the former Chief minister and the AICC general secretary, said Tiwari was sidelined by Vasundhara as he tried to raise his voice against the authoritarian stand of Vasundhara Raje. “The BJP would pay a heavy price for punishing a loyal party worker,” added Gehlot.

However, the BJP leaders in the state said Tiwari was acting against the party and he would not be able to do much damage.