Criminals are part of politics, says Thakre

lucknow: chief minister rajnath singh and bjp chief kalraj mishra may have said 'no' to criminals, but kushbhau thakre, former bjp national president, minces no words in accepting that criminals are a necessity in a political system. it is a political compulsion to include criminals in the party, he said here on monday. but, in the same vein, he said that still the bjp was better than other political parties.if criminals were there in our party, we had tried to get rid of them, he added. in a freewheeling interview to times news network, thakre, who is also in-charge of up affairs, said: i do not take guarantee that criminals would not be given ticket for the next assembly elections. we will try to eliminate them. but one thing should be borne in mind that no one lives in isolation. we are getting leaders from this society only. and all of them are not sadhus. thakre's remarks comes at time when political leaders of all hues are crying hoarse against criminalisation of politics. samajwadi party had even suspended two of its mps for their criminal antecedents. in politics, said thakre, situations arises when one has to make compromises. the bjp faced a similar situation in 1996 when the former governor romesh bhandari refused to invite the bjp to form government though it was the largest party. we had no option then but to take help of legislators from other parties. a few of them may have had criminal records. we used them to break the political impasse prevailing at that time, he added. and we do not know about future, too, he said and added: so far, criminals are not in the bjp. they may be with our allies. he was obviously referring to ramakant yadav, a noted criminal who joined the janata dal (u) recently. and even thakre shared dais with yadav in azamgarh. not only about criminals, the former bjp chief was also very clear what action should be taken against indisciplined legislators. i do not go by complaints as i know in politics complaints are generally fake, he said and added: it is said that a few bjp legislators had cross voted during rajya sabha polls. but where is the proof. if it is proved in black and white that legislators had cross voted then they would be denied assembly tickets this time. incidentally, former state bjp president om prakash singh, who is also pwd minister in rajnath's cabinet, had said that the culprits had been identified. about prospects of the bjp in the coming elections, thakre said that both the cm and the state bjp chief had infused a new life in the party. party workers are active. they are implementing party programmes at the village level. the party's chalo gaon ki sune programme was a success as bjp leaders came to know about two things — one, development work carried out by the government and, second, the work which the government should do. based on this feedback, the government played its mbc reservation card and extended reservation to that section of society which was deprived of reservation benefits, said thakre. thakre, however, was not willing to give numbers the bjp is expected to win in this election. do not ask me now. i can tell you this much that the bjp will form the next government too and rajnath singh would be the chief minister.