Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra all set to snap family’s ties with BJP

Lately, conversations around the dining table at 15, Teen Murti Lane, have been about the pain and nostalgia of old times. As Jaswant Singh, former External Affairs Minister and BJP veteran who later rebelled against the party, lies comatose in the next room, his wife Sheetal Kanwar, older son and Rajasthan BJP MLA Manvendra Singh, daughter-in-law Chitra and grandson Hamir lapse into awkward silences as they discuss the forthcoming Swabhiman Rally in Pachpadra, Barmer on September 22.

The rally will formally mark the family severing its ties with the BJP – a moment that is historic not just for Singh Senior and his son, but also for their wives and children who, for decades, have actively campaigned for them as BJP candidates.

Members of the Rajput community, and followers and supporters of both Jaswant and Manvendra, will assemble near the site of an upcoming oil refinery where the latter will open up the floor to the gathering for discussions about his future course of action.


Unlike the fate of the refinery, which hangs in the balance between the Congress having cleared it as a big-ticket project, and the BJP having put it on the backburner, Manvendra’s move will be decisive. The road ahead either leads him to the Congress, or he will go it alone.


“We were betrayed twice over by the BJP. Once, after my husband authored the book on Jinnah, and for a second time when the party refused to give him a ticket for his last electoral battle, despite assurances to the contrary,” says Jaswant’s wife Sheetal. “After the book was released, no one bothered to read it, but chose to expel him on impulse.

They did not even have the courtesy to call and tell him. I still remember I had to break the news to him myself. A couple of years later, they prevailed upon him to come back to the party. I had protested at the time, and said that they could not be trusted but… And see what they did in 2014. After all this, if Manvendra continues to be with the BJP, I will disown him.”

In 2014, after being kept on tenterhooks for months, Jaswant Singh was denied a ticket by the BJP from his hometown of Barmer. Determined to fight his last election from there, he contested as an Independent, just like he had at the start of his political career. He lost in both the instances, though it was by the narrowest of margins in his last election, since he was riding the Modi wave that swept the state, and led to the BJP grabbing all 25 of the Parliamentary seats.

Since Manvendra – who was an MLA from Sheo in Barmer at the time -- did not canvas for the BJP, primarily because of the way his father had been treated, he was removed from the party’s national executive and expelled. Manvendra, however, never received the expulsion letter, and has continued to serve as a BJP MLA on the records of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly.

With the Assembly polls around the corner, Manvendra has decided to take a final call. Though he does not intend to contest the Assembly polls, he is gearing up for the General Elections of 2019 – but after having made his political loyalties known. “As the name suggests, the Swabhiman Rally will be one for self-respect,” says Manvendra.

“The gathering will include all those followers and supporters who stood by my father in his last election in 2014, and have been by my side as well, through all these years. I will go with whatever is the consensus among them [about my future]. It will be a truly democratic voice vote.” Then, glancing at his mother who is looking at him darkly, he adds with a laugh: “You see her expression? I dare not stay with the BJP any longer.”

While the family deals with the emotional repercussions of snapping ties with a party that Jaswant helped to found, strained relations with Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje have continued to worsen. The family claims reports of Chitra’s alleged aspirations to contest the Assembly polls are being planted in the local media, while it is also being alleged that she disrupted meetings of Kshatranis in the region. “I am not contesting any elections. These are false reports doing the rounds. I have always stood by my husband and my father-in-law, and will continue to do so,” clarifies Chitra, who has campaigned extensively during Jaswant’s last election.

Congress leaders from Rajasthan, however, remained tight-lipped about Manvendra joining their fold. While no one from the party wanted to hazard a guess about the outcome of the forthcoming rally, if Manvendra joins the Congress he will bring with him a votebank that may secure the Parliamentary seat of Barmer-Jaisalmer for the party in 2019. The seat has been a Congress stronghold since Independence – until Manvendra won it for the BJP in 2004. However, the symbolism – of a BJP veteran’s son who is also a BJP legislator and former MP from the seat, leaving to possibly join the rival -- can hardly be missed.