Truth is that Advani and his associates have been cut to size; Sushma Swaraj was as good as told off
L K Advani, Senior BJP Leader | Photo PTI
Inner-party struggle in the BJP was out in the open last June when the saffron formation named Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to lead its Lok Sabha election campaign, and the knives have kept sharpening since. Yet the party’s current leadership trio that calls the shots — president Rajnath Singh, Mr Modi, and Mr Arun Jaitley, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, doggedly maintain that all is well. They do not understand that their pretence carries little conviction either with their party or the wider public.
The recent skirmishing on the issue of the place from which the party’s leader L.K. Advani, who may be called its perennially overruled patriarch, shows once again that serious dissidence at the top rungs of the BJP — these things usually radiate outward — will probably only end if the party gets a Prime Minister after the election. If not, then we have not seen the worst yet.
Mr Advani has agreed to contest from his present constituency, Gandhinagar, in Gujarat. While it is plain that he had sought the seat all along, lately he appeared to develop worries that his chances may be undermined there and had indirectly hinted at Bhopal. But the leadership slotted him for Gujarat.
He grumbled — in effect, that he had not been shown the courtesy of being asked. After the leaders scampered to his home to show “due respect”, he cooled down and accepted Gandhinagar. Does this mean smooth sailing in the party from now on?
The plain truth is that Mr Advani has been cut to size. So have his associates. Sushma Swaraj, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, was as good as told off by the power trio through Mr Jaitley that she should stop raising “marginal” issues in public (Ms Swaraj had cried foul when the BJP had made peace with the corrupt Bellary lot in Karnataka and had given its ticket to one of them).
Murli Manohar Joshi was shunted to fight in Kanpur from Varanasi against his wishes. And on Friday, Jaswant Singh, external affairs minister under Atal Behari Vajpayee, was denied the chance to fight his last election from his home base of Barmer in Rajasthan. He was not exactly in the Advani grouping but was a senior non-RSS face of the BJP.
The BJP’s blues on account of candidate selection have spread rapidly. Effigies of Mr Modi and Mr Singh have been burnt by supporters in Uttar Pradesh.
In Patna, BJP men opposing the candidature of Mr Shatrughan Sinha from the Patna Saheb seat engaged in fisticuffs in public. Black flags have been shown to prominent party candidates. Remarkably, the leadership has shown little inclination for intra party diplomacy.
( Source : dc )
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