V.V. KRISHNAN

Rajnath Singh: “Weakness was inside us.”

RAJNATH SINGH, who demits office as Bharatiya Janata Party president on December 31 at the end of his three-year term, leaves with a heavy heart. He is not known for interacting much with the media and did not respond strongly to criticism that followed the party’s defeats in the Lok Sabha elections in May and in the recent Assembly elections in three States. Even when some of his own party colleagues spoke against him, he refused to join in a blame game. He admits that he has a few regrets, but adds that he will never express them in public. He almost turns philosophical, saying God and time will prove that he acted in the best interests of the party. In this interview with Frontline, Rajnath Singh discusses the mess the party finds itself in, and argues that such ups and downs are normal in the history of any party. Excerpts:

No, that is not the case. We did try hard in Maharashtra and were confident of getting a good outcome, but, unfortunately, that did not happen. The Maharashtra results were certainly unexpected, but it proves only one thing: that we need to work harder and work with more honesty.

I do not blame anyone for our defeat in Maharashtra, not even the MNS. Whatever is happening within the Shiv Sena is its internal matter and I would not like to comment on that. I would only say one thing, that the weakness was inside us only and we should try and rectify those weaknesses now.

The Shiv Sena is one of our oldest allies. For over 25 years we have been together and there is no question of reviewing this alliance. What led to our defeat in Maharashtra is a matter for bigger analysis, but our alliance with the Sena is not under review.

No way. We will have nothing to do with MNS independently. Our alliance is with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and if the Sena-MNS ties change in the future that may have an impact on our strategy. But as of today, we will have nothing to do with the MNS.

True, in Haryana we made a mistake by not aligning with the INLD. There were some seat-sharing problems and we decided to give it a try on our own. Our performance has not been all that bad. We won four seats [against two last time] and our vote share has increased to 10 per cent. Since we contested all the seats on our own for the first time, this was not a bad performance at all. But yes, had we fought together we could have won this election.

No, it is not like that. It is true that we lost the Lok Sabha elections and that we could not dislodge the government in Maharashtra. But every political party goes through such phases of ups and downs. Even the Congress was in the wilderness for about 15-20 years. Now it is their time, tomorrow we will come back. I am confident we will regain the people’s faith.

We have a line-up of young and charismatic leaders and they will come out at the right time. Many of our Chief Ministers are young and dynamic, and they are already playing active roles in national politics. We have no dearth of leaders.

That is for the party to decide. We are already in the process of holding our organisational elections, which actually overhauls the party from the grass-roots level upwards. So, some young, youthful, dynamic faces will soon emerge on the national scene.

Despite the fact that we lost the Lok Sabha elections, what gives me satisfaction is the fact that during the past three years there were elections in 22 States and we won the majority of them. In States like Karnataka, we formed our government for the first time. In difficult States like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat, we retained power beating anti-incumbency, while in Bihar we dislodged the decade-old government of Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). These are no mean achievements. But yes, we cannot sit back and exult. Much more needs to be done, much more needs to be achieved. As for regrets, yes I have quite a few, but would not like to express them in public.

I would not like to talk about these things. But yes, I would certainly want to say that I never played foul, never acted out of vengeance, never cheated on anyone and never indulged in any blame game. If the party has done poorly in some cases, the responsibility is fully mine and I accept defeat with all humility. I have faith in God and am sure time and God will prove me right.

In Jharkhand we are confident of winning. We will form the government there with a full majority.

We have been getting a good response from the people. The past few years of Congress misrule in Jharkhand, which is evident from the cases of corruption against the Chief Minister who was supported by the Congress and even the former Governor, will go against them. The people in Jharkhand are fed up with the administrative stagnation and the lack of governance.

We will not project anyone as the Chief Minister candidate.

Our alliance with the Janata Dal (United) will continue. I have already had one round of discussions with [JD president] Sharad Yadavji and soon the seat-sharing formula will be finalised.