Kushwaha leaves BJP in an embarrassing position

New Delhi: After he switched loyalties and moved to the BJP, the CBI on Wednesday raided former Maywati minister Babu Singh Kushwaha. His properties as well as those of several in connection with the National Rurul Health Mission scam were raided.

An embarrassed BJP claims the raids are a Congress-BSP plot, but is now struggling to explain the induction of the tainted minister.

A day after former Mayawati key aide Babu Singh Kushwaha was inducted by the party at its national headquarters in full media glare, he was named as one of the main accused in the NRHM scam. CBI conducted raids at 60 places in UP, Haryana and Delhi recovering gold and cash from premises of those allegedly close to Kushwaha.

Kushwaha said, "I appeal to CBI that they should do a fair inquiry. I had joined BJP on ideological reasons. I am strongly against 4.5 per cent reservation. This is done to take away the share of OBC in reservation."

A visibly embarrassed BJP top brass went into a huddle. A retreat now as they did with DP Yadav in 2004 could be counterproductive. So BJP did the next best thing, deny Kushwaha a party ticket but play the caste card.

For BJP now, offence is the best defence. In UP's complex caste matrix, party now wants to reach out to backward Keori votes through Kushwaha but on the flip side will it not disturb BJP's core urban vote bank in the state.

A section of the party though is clearly upset including LK Advani who rode a rath recently to campaign against corruption, even the NDA allies are not impressed. For the congress though, it's an opportunity to strike back.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh said, "What is the deal Mr Naqvi is talking about? There is a deal between the BJP and the BSP. The BSP is only sacking the corrupt leaders after they looted the state for five years. The BSP should have filed a case against them."

Watching all this chaos is the Congress prince. The more all the opposition parties squabble amongst themselves, the better the Congress's chance of getting new votes.

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