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Bihar BJP workers upset over Bhandari's possible replacement

Tara Shankar Sahay in Patna

Demoralisation appears to have set in among Bharatiya Janata Party workers in Bihar following continuing speculation that the party high command wants to replace Governor S S Bhandari.

"The central leadership should have weighed the pros and cons before sending him as the Bihar governor, and we are not happy that he might be replaced. It will have disastrous consequences for us and our morale," Bihar BJP general secretary Chandramohan Rai told Rediff On The Net.

BJP workers and a section of the local leadership are continuing to impress on the central leadership that the 'institutionalisation' of the Rashtriya Janata Dal brand of politics in the state government and bureaucracy can only be countered by a determined personality like Bhandari. They have emphasised that his replacement would send wrong signals to the electorate.

Leader of opposition in the state assembly and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi also cautioned that the central leadership should ensure that the people should not misunderstand a gubernatorial change in Bihar when it is effected.

The demoralisation among Bihar members stems from the fact that Bhandari has already effected far-reaching changes in the state administration, including immediately transferring police officials and bureaucrats in the state soon after central rule was clamped. The apprehension is that if Bhandari is replaced, the new incumbent might disturb the political equilibrium which came about after the governor initiated the changes.

Already, there is talk among BJP workers in Bihar that Bhandari is likely to be shifted to Orissa, which is currently under the additional charge of Andhra Pradesh Governor C Rangarajan.

With Union Home Minister L K Advani's announcement that Bhandari was being replaced, and the BJP high command's subsequent resolve to continue with him, the Bihar BJP workers feel that only a "determined incumbent" in the governor's post can tackle the political situation in the state. One school of thought is advocating the theory that somebody like K P S Gill could suit the state well, because of his track record of effectively countering any sort of terrorism, political or otherwise.

Meanwhile, the central committee member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Suneet Chopra, lashed out at the state administration for not allowing his party to hold a Kisan Sabha in the state's Degusari district. It only proved the "undemocratic credentials of the BJP in Bihar through central rule," Chopra claimed, adding that "Bhandari's likely replacement would fulfil a much-desired need".

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