BJP's Wonder Woman: Preeti Mahapatra case a sordid example of backroom deals in RS polls

Meet the wonder woman BJP wanted to be a member of the Rajya Sabha.

In a picture on her Facebook page that has since been deactivated, the BJP’s latest ally Preeti Mahapatra is posing in front of a swimming pool with a group of friends. Somebody has just popped a bottle of Moet and the group appears to be celebrating.

Perhaps they had a reason to rejoice. Much before she made the Rajya Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh a little more exciting with her surprise last-minute entry from Gujarat, Mahapatra and her builder husband Harihara were subjects of a police enquiry.

In January 2015, according to reports, a gynaecologist couple from Aurangabad filed a complaint against the woman BJP wanted to be a Parliamentarian through cross-voting, alleging Mahapatra and her husband had duped them of Rs 5.5-crore.

The couple said they were offered a flat and shares in a 10-storey building project in Bandra, which never came up. The builder had provided them a forged commencement certificate, they alleged, according to The Times of India .

In May, Mahapatra descended on the political firmament of Uttar Pradesh as an independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha, apparently propped up by the BJP to block the path of Congress candidate Kapil Sibal. The BJP had seven votes to spare in the state Assembly and all of them were reportedly promised to the socialite-cum-businesswoman-cum-social worker.

Many Moets, obviously, were called for.

Mahapatra’s case is a sordid example of the backroom deals that dominate Rajya Sabha polls, turning every election into the highest-bidder-gets-past-the-post contest.

Till she descended in Lucknow, husband in tow, much to the glee of the horses available for trade, Mahapatra had no link to Uttar Pradesh. Except for the fact that she runs an NGO and calls Prime Minister Narendra Modi her ‘‘idol and mentor", she had no connection with politics.

So, why was she parachuted into UP as the 12th candidate for 11 seats?

As events in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Haryana point out, Mahapatra is a symbol of the malaise that has inflicted RS polls. Almost every election is dominated by the entry of independent candidates with moneybags who get into the fray with the intention of orchestrating cross-voting, turning the election into a bazaar.

In Rajasthan, in a bid to influence the conscience of some BJP legislators, industrialist Kamal Morarka was in the fray as the fifth candidate for four RS seats. He was guaranteed Congress votes, in spite of the fact that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi despised Morarka, and support of some independents. Morarka, like Mahapatra, could influence just a few minds and lost the elections.

But, in Haryana, independent candidate, media baron Subhash Chandra managed to sail home with help from the BJP, whose legislators supported him. Though his rival lawyer RK Anand, who was backed by the Congress and the INLD, had the numbers, 14 MLAs from former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s camp managed to get their votes discarded, making Rahul Gandhi’s control over his flock look like a joke.

The Rajya Sabha is meant to be the House of elders, a reflection of India’s federal structure. But, several of its crucial elections are decided by a candidate’s ability to swing votes in the name of “conscience”. Notice that by some quirk of human psychology only those with deep-pockets have the ability to influence the conscience of our legislators.

The political compulsions of winning every RS seat are understandable. The Congress wants to dominated the Upper House to stall legislation. The BJP, which was busy performing the Congress role during the UPA tenure, needs the numbers to fast-track important laws. So, each seat matters.

But the ugly machinations that precede the elections verge of trading and arm-twisting. In Rajasthan, for instance, there are reports that the BJP set police after founders of the Zamindara Party to ensure its two MLAs vote do not for Morarka. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP tried every possible trick to deprive the Congress of a legitimate win.

Notice also that none of the established parties backed independent candidates on their merit. If the BJP, for instance, was keen to support an industrialist, could it not have found somebody with better bona fides and credentials than an alleged con woman? Similarly, was a man considered an anathema by Rajiv Gandhi the only option for the Congress?

Politicians have not learnt from the Vijay Mallya episode. For two consecutive elections, Mallya manipulated legislators in Karnataka and the poll outcome. It was an ode to his abilities–and he had lots of them to influence legislators– that Mallya won two elections, snaring votes of every party across the political divide.

Mallya is in London today. But in India, his legacy is safe in the hands of the Mahapatras, Morarkas and Goyals.