Congress activists burn a cutout of Vajpayee in New Delhi on Wednesday. (AFP)

New Delhi, May 19: Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s silence over what the CPM has dubbed a “sinister attempt” by some of his party colleagues to obstruct Sonia Gandhi from heading a Congress-led alliance has taken some of the shine off the former Prime Minister’s statesman-like image.

His personal popularity as Prime Minister had consistently been very high, prompting the BJP to contest the Lok Sabha elections on Brand Vajpayee. However, the former Prime Minister was silent over his junior colleagues’ attempts to start an agitation against Sonia becoming Prime Minister after she led the Congress to victory.

Many ordinary middle-class voters, who do not have pronounced political affiliations, looked up to Vajpayee as a statesman and believed he was a moderate and secular politician, way above the rest of the BJP leaders. This section is disappointed at Vajpayee’s silence.

“After the electorate gave its verdict and the Congress became the single-largest party, Vajpayee should have shown some grace and put a stop to the theatrics of his junior party colleagues like Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharti. He would have gone down better in history if he had risen above party considerations,” said Roopa Sharma, an executive in a private company.

However, Manvendra Singh, BJP MP from Rajasthan and son of Jaswant Singh, felt Vajpayee had no choice but to keep quiet. Individual members of the BJP like Sushma and Uma were taking a personal initiative and the party had nothing to do with it, Singh said. “It’s an emotional issue and what can Vajpayee do about it? He cannot stop them feeling strongly about having a foreigner as India’s Prime Minister. I don’t blame him for not issuing a statement as all this was done at their personal initiatives.”

The MP felt a referendum should be held to decide on Sonia’s foreign origin once and for all. “These elections were not fought on the question of Sonia’s Italian origin… in parliamentary polls there are too many local factors. We do not accept the Congress view that the electorate has accepted Sonia because the voters were never asked to decide on the foreign origin.”

K.P. Singh, young entrepreneur in the capital who appreciated the National Democratic Alliance government’s economic policies, however, said he always had reservations about Vajpayee.

“I am not surprised that Vajpayee has not spoken up. I never expected anything from Vajpayee after Gujarat,” he added.

Another middle-class voter who admires Vajpayee is disappointed, but believes that he had no option.

“What can he do now? His party has already lost the elections. If he now tries to tell either Sushma Swaraj or Uma Bharti what to do he will be seen as going against the party line…. After all, he will also now have to toe the RSS line or quit active politics,” said Rafi Khan, a consultant for a public relations firm.