By Ram Kumar Kaushik
The time has come when former bureaucrats and ex police officers are on a look out to join political parties and try their luck in elections. In past few years, BJP has been the favourite party for officers and administrators as is evident from the fact that in last few days a large number of former administrators have joined BJP in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which are going for the assembly polls later this year. In every likelihood, Congress will lag behind BJP in attracting administrators, former bureaucrats and IPS officers.
In Madhya Pradesh, a couple of days back, three former IAS officers – Kavindra Kiyavat , Raghuveer Srivastava and S N Singh have joined BJP along with former judge of Mandla region – Prakash Uike. They all took membership of BJP along with 1200 people including former leaders of Congress.
Similarly in Rajasthan, a few days back former IAS officers – Prithvi Raj Meena, Dr Satya Pal Singh, Manoj Sharma along with IPS officers – Jaswant Sampatram, Gopal Meena, Ramdev Singh Khairwa – and former IRS C R Meena joined BJP. Apart from them former Congress MLAs have also joined BJP in last one month.
Why former bureaucrats and ex-officers prefer BJP
A mere look at Modi's cabinet will uncover this secret. BJP supremo Modi trusts administrators and former bureaucrats and so do bureaucrats. In Modi's cabinet important portfolios like External Affairs, UDH, Petroleum, Law, Power, Railways and Communication among few others are all being held by former bureaucrats and aristocrats. Keeping that in view, at state level also, former bureaucrats eyeing to contest elections go naturally to the saffron party.
“We feel that BJP as a nationalist party will respect our calibre and our rich administrative experience will be put to good use. Congress has stopped valuing bureaucrats so there is a natural shift to BJP,” said a senior former bureaucrat who is going to join BJP in next few days.
Apart from bureaucrats helming plum ministries, Modi also has Ajit Doval currently National Security Advisor, who is a former IPS officer. He has been inducted to the rank of cabinet minister.
Ram Kumar Kaushik is a seasoned journalist with over 25 years of experience across mediums. The architect of this news website, he is also a consultant with several media groups. He was formerly the group managing editor of ITV Network (NewsX, India News and The Sunday Guardian) and its digital products.
