BJP's top yatri trudges it alone

BJP President Rajnath Singh is upset with the timing of his Bharat Suraksha Yatra, sources say. The frequent breaking down of his rath and poor management is the least of his problems, they add.

"He was apprehensive about the timing from the start as the yatra it did not build up to the polls. The political temperature, too, was not conducive, but what has upset him the most is that his rath is passing through areas where the BJP is weak." said a Rajnath aide.

"The RSS had to mobilise crowds in tribal belts of Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to rescue the yatra. Otherwise, things would have looked very sorry for him," the aide added. Advani, he said, was attracting large crowds as most areas his rath was passing through were BJP strongholds.

Venkaiah Naidu, who is co-ordinating both the yatras and is responsible for charting the routes, has come in for criticism. "Except the 286-km stretch between Gaya and Patna, all distances have been underestimated, which has played havoc with our schedules," a BJP office-bearer accompanying Singh said.

"For instance, the distance between Jashpur and Ranchi is 210 km, but the route chart said 188 km. Patna to Gopalganj was shown as 177 km, but the distance is 230 km," the office-bearer said. "The van broke down as soon as the yatra started. Naidu is responsible for all the routes. It's bad planning," he added.

Another sore point for Rajnath is the absence of senior BJP leaders. Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh refused to greet Rajnath Singh at Varanasi while Murli Manohar Joshi washed his hands of the yatra when it passed through Allahabad. Arun Jaitley is in West Bengal.

This is in contrast to Pramod Mahajan and Sushma Swaraj, who were with Advani in Maharashtra and Karnataka, respectively. It's no wonder that Rajnath Singh is feeling left out.