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Ex-Congressmen knock at Sonia's door as BJP cold-shoulders them

Cold-shouldered by the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership, the pack of Congressmen who joined the saffron brigade on the eve of the 12th general election want to return to their parent party, now headed by Sonia Gandhi.

Nearly five months after they shifted their allegiance to the BJP, some of these former Congress leaders have realised that crossing the floor for a bright political future does not always lead them to green pastures.

Sensing that they will neither be allowed to play an active role in the BJP nor be approached by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to be part of his council of ministers, many of the former Congressmen want to go back to the Sonia-led Congress.

Led by former Pune MP Suresh Kalmadi, the group met in New Delhi early this week to chalk out an action plan to either make their voice more audible in the BJP. Kalmadi did not join the BJP -- he contested the election as an Independent supported by the BJP and the Shiv Sena, but lost the poll.

The other disgruntled former Congressmen in the BJP include Dalip Singh Bhuria and Aslam Sher Khan from Madhya Pradesh, non-resident Indian Atma Charan Reddy from Andhra Pradesh, Anadi Charan Sahu from Orissa, I P Hazarika from Assam, Mohan Delkar from Dadra and Nagar Haveli and M Tandel from Daman.

"We feel we have been completely sidelined in the BJP. All of us worked very hard for the BJP to emerge as the single largest party in the election. But now we are getting a step-brotherly treatment," said Hazarika who lost the election from Assam.

He complained that the BJP leadership is systematically distancing the former Congressmen. ''None of us has been given any prominence in the party affairs."

While Delkar and Tandel won the election on BJP tickets, Bhuria -- a prominent tribal leader from Madhya Pradesh -- lost the poll. Khan was not given a ticket despite his wishes to contest from Bhopal.

While the group of former Congressmen wanted the prime minister to include one of them in the ministry, a section of the BJP leaders strongly opposed the move suggesting that 'the outsiders' cannot be relied upon and therefore cannot inducted in the government.

Khan, who was a minister of state in the prime minister's office in the P V Narasimha Rao government, was apparently promised that he would be made the BJP minority cell chief. Likewise, the BJP leadership had offered to set up a new panel for scheduled castes and tribals and make Bhuria its chief.

Khan told Rediff On The NeT that he has not been called even once to the BJP headquarters to discuss the revamping of the minority cell. "We the former Congressmen are yet to play an active role in the BJP despite the fact that we all worked hard for the party's victory in the election," he said.

The former Congressmen are planning to take up their complaints with new BJP president Kushabhau Thakre who, they believe, will make some concrete plans to actively involve them in the party's functioning.

Many of them believe that, given the delicate nature of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee coalition government, the prime minister will not allow any troubles to erupt within the BJP from the former Congressmen.

But some of them, who are no more willing to be passive onlookers in the BJP and suffer the neglect for long, want to re-join the Congress.

"We left when the Congress was in a bad shape under the leadership of Sitaram Kesri. Now that Sonia Gandhi has taken over, we wish to be part of the party," one of those leaders told Rediff On The NeT.

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