Good riddance! BJP shuns support of tainted lawmaker Gopal Kanda in Haryana, ties up with Chautala

Yesterday, reports about controversial MLA Gopal Kanda tendering unconditional support to the BJP in the state of Haryana brought the party under attack for associating itself with the tainted legislator. However, in what comes as a matter of great relief, Kanda did not get to play any significant role in government formation as the BJP has not taken his support. BJP has reportedly tied up with Dushyant Chautala led Jannayak Janata Party (JJP).

As per a report, sources have also said that the BJP never sought Gopal Kanda’s support, rather he offered his unconditional support. Even the Haryana CM, Manohar Lal Khattar is said to have been opposed to the idea of taking Kanda’s support.

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Kanda is facing serious allegations of having harassed an air hostess who worked at Gopal Kanda’s aviation firm MDLR airlines- Geetika Sharma, who had committed suicide in 2012. In her suicide note, Sharma had stated that she was ending her life owing to “harassment” by Kanda and one of his employees, Aruna Chadha. Kanda was arrested at for abetting Geetika Sharma’s suicide. Initially, Kanda was also charged with rape, however the charge was dropped after he was granted bail by the Delhi High Court in 2014.

This case had led to a massive furor and even the BJP, then in opposition, had demanded Kanda’s arrest. Later on, even Geetika Sharma’s mother committed suicide and Kanda was once again accused of abetment to suicide. 

In such circumstances, the BJP taking support of the tainted MLA wouldn’t have sent the right message across. The BJP, therefore, witnessed demands from within the party not to take Kanda’s support.

Even senior party leader, Uma Bharti tweeted, “I would like to request the party not to forget its moral foundation.” She further said, “If Kanda is the same person who was the cause of a girl’s suicide, the suicide of her mother and faces trial…whether he is innocent or guilty, the law will decide. But his winning an election does not absolve him. There are many factors in an election victory.”

The BJP, therefore, has taken the right step by not aligning with the tainted lawmaker. The party has been registering impressive victories across several states on the promise of delivering clean governance. However, by aligning with such a leader the BJP would have been seen as compromising with its core principles. At an electoral level too, taking his support could have resulted in dire consequences for the party. Kanda is not indispensable for the party in Haryana, but taking his support could have generated a butterfly effect leading to losses for the party’s candidates in the other states as the party’s image would have been greatly hampered. The BJP was anyway crossing the halfway mark with the support of seven other independent candidates. However, even if that were not the case, taking Kanda’s support would still not have been warranted.

The BJP has been importing outsiders and even controversial leaders from other political parties and the recent assembly poll results do come as a wake-up call for the party. The party has been importing leaders exiting from other parties, which does give it an impetus in the short run, as the opposition parties become depleted and enfeebled.

These ‘Imported leaders’ are often famous at the grass root levels and have a good standing in specific caste groups. This increases their ability to win. But there is also a clear and obvious disadvantage of it and that is the natural resentment of the public and the cadre. Like the Butterfly Effect, a good leader might lose because of the addition of a bad element in the party.

The resentment of the cadre is also natural because they are supposed to get along well with the newly inducted leaders, the very ones they have spent years fighting. Often cadres leave the party or become indifferent to its affairs.

The BJP must understand that it enjoys a major advantage over its opponents because it is seen as a party with a strong ideological base. Importing political leaders who have traditionally been seen as opposed to the party’s ideological values, the BJP is gradually eroding its ideological base. This serves no real purpose. While it can yield short-term benefits, in the long run, it will only reduce the party’s popularity as it might fail to capture voters’ imagination. Maharashtra assembly poll results displayed how the BJP’s strategy to break its opposition parties does not always lead to desirable results. Assessing the pulse of the nation and its supporters, the BJP has made a wise move by not taking Kanda’s support as it sets just the right kind of precedent and adds credibility to its cause.