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Former Congressmen feel stifled in BJP

Three weeks after they flocked to the Bharatiya Janata Party, some former Congressmen have been left in the lurch by the saffron leadership.

And the BJP shows no signs of giving them tickets to contest the general election.

The bitter message is sinking in as far as former Congress leaders P R Kumaramangalam, Aslam Sher Khan, Ayub Khan, Bhagwat Jha Azad and D C Thakur are concerned.

With their names missing from the BJP's first list of 202 seats, released on Monday, some of the leaders, who have joined the saffron party, are believed to be getting dissatisfied.

One such leader is Aslam Sher Khan, a minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government. He had apparently switched over to the BJP after party president Lal Kishinchand Advani promised to field him from Chandni Chowk in New Delhi.

''I had requested the party to give me the Chandni Chowk ticket as it is a Muslim-dominated constituency. But now I am not sure where the BJP leadership will field me from there,'' Khan told Rediff On The NeT on Friday.

Khan now wants to contest from either Bhopal or Betul in Madhya Pradesh. He has twice won election to the Lok Sabha from Betul as a Congress candidate.

The former Olympic hockey star, however, said he was not dissatisfied with his less-than-a-month experience with the BJP leaders. "Advaniji said my top priority should be wooing the Muslim community to the BJP.''

Many believe that, despite its platitudes to lure the minorities to the party fold, the BJP leadership is not inclined to nominate Muslims from the constituencies where they dominate.

BJP vice-president K L Sharma refutes the charge. ''There are 120 constituencies in the country where the Muslim population is a decisive vote factor. But we do not have those many Muslim leaders in the party,'' he told Rediff On the NeT.

He said the BJP has decided to field Shahnawaj Khan from Kishanganj, a Muslim-dominated seat in Bihar. ''There is no discrimination against Muslims who are joining the party. We are treating all BJP leaders as family members,'' added Sharma. ''Wait and watch, because the ticket distribution is only half-way through.''

Ranga Kumaramangalam is also said to be feeling uneasy at the manner in which the BJP has been handling his case. The BJP leadership had apparently promised to field him from Salem in Tamil Nadu.

But the BJP's alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham has virtually made it impossible for the former Congress minister to contest from constituency. Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha is said to be firm on fielding her party candidate from Salem.

The only exception the BJP has made is in the case of Dalip Singh Bhuria, a prominent Congress leader from the tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh, who joined the saffron brigade along with Khan and Kumaramangalam.

The BJP has fielded Bhuria from Jhabua, from where he has won five consecutive Lok Sabha elections.

BJP sources said the party could not afford to neglect Bhuria who is the strongest Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh, barring the Gwalior MP Madhavrao Scindia.

The fate of other former Congress leaders Ayub Khan, Bhagwat Jha Azad and D C Thakur also hangs in the balance as the BJP has not indicated whether they would be given tickets. So is the case with the prominent deserter from the Janata Dal, Som Pal who joined the BJP, hoping to fight the poll on a BJP ticket.

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