New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may claim to be a cadre-based party that nurtures homegrown leaders but over a fourth of its ministers in the states where it is in power are of non-BJP lineage, having defected from a rival at one point or the other.
The BJP’s eagerness to induct rebels from other parties has reached such an extent, that some of them have been made cabinet ministers within 24 hours of them joining, as seen most recently in the case of Jawahar Chavda in Gujarat.
A detailed analysis by ThePrint of all BJP ministers — cabinet as well as ministers of state (MoS) — in the states where it is the dominant ruling party shows that as many as 29 per cent of them are of non-BJP origin. This is especially true of the northeastern states.
The BJP has chief ministers in 12 states — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Manipur, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Of the 180 ministers that belong to the BJP across these states, around 53 began their political careers with other parties.
For the purpose of this analysis, only those states where the chief minister belongs to the BJP have been picked, and not those where it is the junior partner in the government such as in Bihar. Further, only ministers from the BJP and not from its allies have been considered. The list of ministers includes the chief ministers of the respective states.
The analysis showed that except in Maharashtra, at least one BJP minister in each of these states is a rebel from another party.
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The heartland states
Although the BJP lost three key heartland states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — to the Congress in the December 2018 assembly polls, it continues to be in power in others such as Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
In Haryana, of the nine cabinet ministers and five MoS, three are from other parties. While Rao Narbir Singh was with the Haryana Janhit Congress before coming to the BJP, Banwari Lal joined from the Congress in February 2014 and Krishan Lal Panwar joined the party in September 2014 from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD).
In Uttarakhand, the number is bigger. Of the 10 ministers here, five are outsiders. These include prominent names such as Satpal Maharaj, Harak Singh Rawat and Yashpal Arya.
Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna — son of veteran Congress leader H.N. Bahuguna — led a rebellion in Uttarakhand, causing a split in the Congress, in 2016 ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
His sister Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was a top Congress leader in Uttar Pradesh, followed suit. She is now among the nine BJP ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government with a non-BJP background.
Some other names in UP include Swami Prasad Maurya and S.P. Singh Baghel who left the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2016, Anil Rajbhar who left the Samajwadi Party the same year. The BJP has 25 cabinet ministers, nine MoS with Independent Charge and 13 MoS’ in the state.
The northeast
This is a region where the BJP traditionally had no foothold but ever since coming to power at the Centre in 2014, the party has steadily expanded its grip here and is now in power in six of the seven northeastern states, either on its own or as part of a coalition.
With no organic presence, however, the party has built its base and organisation in these states by inducting leaders from its rivals, mainly the Congress. This was seen most recently in last year’s assembly polls in Tripura where the BJP swept to power by creating a worker-base that shifted from the Congress.
In Tripura, of the seven cabinet ministers, as many as four — over 55 per cent — are those who were in the Congress but joined the party in 2017. These ministers include Ratan Lal Nath, Sudip Roy Barman, Pranjit Singha Roy and Manoj Kanti Deb.
In Arunachal Pradesh, meanwhile, almost all the ministers are Congress rebels, including Chief Minister Pema Khandu. Some of the other names include Chowna Mein, Honchun Ngandam and Kamlung Mosang. The state has had a crisis-ridden recent political past with defections, instability and complex political equations as the defining factors. Taking full political advantage of this, the BJP has built its base in the state through defections.
In the 2016 assembly elections in Assam, the BJP came to power in the state for the first time ever and heads a coalition government. Of its 11 ministers — cabinet and MoS — around 45 per cent are from the Congress.
Most notable among these is the senior minister in the government, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who left the Congress after an ugly spat to join the BJP in 2015, and is credited as being his party’s chief political architect in the region. The list also includes Sum Ronghang and Pallab Lochan Das, among others.
In Manipur, meanwhile, of the six BJP ministers, five are from other parties, including Chief Minister N. Biren Singh.
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The western states
Maharashtra, where the BJP is in power along with ally Shiv Sena, seems to be the only state where all BJP ministers have their roots in the party itself. Of the 16 cabinet ministers and seven MoS, none are defectors.
Gujarat, however, is another story. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, the BJP has recently stepped up its efforts to poach from the Congress, more so in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. Of the 24 ministers here, around seven are outsiders.
Jawahar Chavda, who joined from the Congress recently, was inducted as a cabinet minister, while Dharmendrasinh Jadeja was sworn in as an MoS. Kunwarji Bavaliya, who joined the BJP in mid-2018, and Jayesh Radadia are also from the Congress. As are ministers of state like Yogesh Patel, Jaydrathsinh Parmar and Parbatbhai Patel.
In Goa, where the BJP just about managed to save its government after Manohar Parrikar passed away Sunday, two of its five cabinet ministers — Vishwajeet Rane and Mauvin Godinho — were previously with the Congress.
States with few defectors
Besides Maharashtra, BJP governments in certain other states also have very few of those who have defected from other parties.
In Himachal Pradesh, of the 12 cabinet ministers, only one does not have BJP roots — Anil Sharma, who joined from the Congress in October 2017.
Jharkhand, meanwhile, has a BJP government under Chief Minister Raghubar Das. Of the 10 BJP ministers, two have non-BJP lineage — Amar Kumar Bauri and Randhir Kumar Singh who were earlier with the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik).
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What BJP says
The party, with its roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has always claimed to be one with a difference, adhering to a core ideology and following a given set of beliefs.
However, with a gamut of leaders who join the party after defecting from others, the party agrees its character does get “diluted”.
“Of course, the party’s character gets diluted. It’s core, however, remains the same given as a party, our ideology is clear. Though it is evident that if so many outsiders come in, there will be some shift,” said a source in the BJP who did not wish to be identified.
“But this is not something one can help in politics. Electoral compulsions, winnability and the need to be in power over-ride much else.”
With inputs from Manasi Phadke, Prashant Srivastava and Chitleen Sethi