BANGALORE: R K Misra, TOI's Lead India initiative winner, joined the BJP on Saturday. He was inducted into the party in presence of leaders Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar.
After a five-year stint in public life and social entrepreneurship, the 44-year-old RK, as he is popularly known, said he was not hankering for a ticket to contest elections. "I've no intentions of contesting any elections. My idea of joining active politics is to work towards engaging educated civil society in the political process," he told reporters.
Misra is the second Lead India finalist to join politics. Sanjeev Kaura, a Delhiite who was in the final round of Lead India, has joined Mayawati's BSP and currently general secretary of the Himachal Pradesh unit. Devang Nanavati, also a Lead India finalist from Ahmedabad, has dropped hints about joining active politics.
"The Lead India Campaign really changed my life. I was into public activism and social entreprenurship for over five years but I was never noticed by the public. Lead India gave me the much needed fillip and helped me to get noticed by the public and media," Mishra said.
Welcoming Misra, Jaitley said his entry would strengthen BJP since he is a true leader in every sense. "He proved his leadership mettle in the earnest leadership campaign initiated by The Times of India and none can doubt his abilities. The party will make best use of his talent," he added.
Asked why he chose BJP, Mishra said, "NDA's focus on development and good governance during 1998-2004 is what inspired me the most to join the party."
In 2006, when Times of India had initiated the Lead India campaign I had hoped that it would throw up leaders who could lead India out of the morass that it has been thrown into by our corrupt leaders.
At that time I had written to the TOI that unless TOI and other media and educated and enlightened people support the people who had shown their leadership qualities, it would just become a realty show contest.
Nobody paid any attention and the result is there for everybody to see.
Like any realty show most of them have gone into oblivion and two of them are in sight joining parties any honest person would not touch with a mile long pole.
Sanjeev Kaura has joinded the BSP and R K Mishra has joined the BJP.
Naturaly, each will praise his own party.
These are the same corrupt parties which have lead India to its present mess of corruption.
If the TOI was interested, it should have nurtured them to stand as independents so that they could take independent decisions and not use these party's props.
Now, these two will dance to the tune of in one case Mayawati and in the other case to L K Advani and Rajnath Singh.
It was a well begun job but very poorly finished.
It got TOI publicity but did nothing to rid India of the corrupt politicians.
Now TOI has started a Lead India 2009, campaign.
Again to hawk publicity but nothing to help India.
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