Girish Vyas quits BJP posts and membership, lends office to rebel Anil Sole for graduates' poll

Former MLA Girish Vyas has resigned from every post he held in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has also given up his primary membership, deepening the infighting in the party's Nagpur unit ahead of the graduates' constituency election. He announced the decision on the last day for withdrawing nomination papers, and said he stood behind Anil Sole, another former MLA, who is contesting as an independent against the party's wishes.

The party has named Sudhakar Kohale as its official candidate for the seat. Discontent over the distribution of tickets has been building inside the BJP, and Sole's decision to enter the fray on his own was already being read as a challenge to the leadership, which is standing with Kohale. Vyas's exit, coming on the final day for withdrawals, has pushed that unrest into the open and is being described as a heavy blow to the party in the city.

Vyas has not stopped at a resignation letter. He has put his office at the disposal of Sole's campaign, and the office has already been inaugurated. It is located at Badkas Chowk, close to the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a detail that has added to the talk in political circles.

Explaining his move, Vyas said the party to which he had given his youth, and for which he had set aside everything at home and worked at small jobs, does not remember its workers when a big decision is to be taken. According to him, workers are not consulted, key workers are not taken into confidence, and one person arrives and decides as he pleases.

He also raised a procedural objection. Under party rules, he said, a candidature should be announced only after the parliamentary board has met, and he asked why the graduates' constituency candidate was declared earlier. In his view this was not in keeping with the BJP's own constitution.

Vyas said he objects to Kohale's candidature on the same ground. Kohale is a party worker, as he himself is, but the names of aspirants from Nagpur should first have been sent to the parliamentary board, and that process was not followed.

Describing his fight as one meant to spare the next generation in the party, Vyas said old workers want the BJP to take decisions within a set framework from now on. He would not go so far as to say that old workers are being suffocated, he said, but many who came later have moved ahead. He added that he never learnt to put on such a show, and that if the party is content with it, he too had to take a decision, which is why he gave up primary membership.

Vyas further alleged that people who work against the party are being made office-bearers. He asked whether the remaining workers are dead, whether they are inactive, and whether their capability has run out. Those given posts after loyalists were sidelined, he said, are not very capable.

Political observers are now watching how much of a challenge Sole's independent candidacy poses to Kohale, and what effect Vyas's resignation has on the election equations. Attention is also on the final list of candidates and on the possible impact on the result, as the contest has become a test of the BJP's internal unity in Nagpur.