Tuesday, Jun 11, 2013
New Delhi: The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heaved a sigh of relief as its veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani Tuesday agreed to withdraw his resignation from all party posts.
An announcement to this effect was made by the BJP president Rajnath Singh.
Singh called on Advani Tuesday evening. The 85-year-old former deputy prime minister had resigned from all party posts on Monday presumably in protest against the Sunday decision to appoint Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s elevation in the party hierarchy.
“Mr Advani had resigned but the parliamentary board had unanimously rejected his resignation. We all met Mr Advani and requested that we need his guidance. He has accepted our request,” Rajnath Singh announced, adding that Advani was not present at the press conference as it would have been against the common etiquette.
Singh also confirmed that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat had called up Advani on Tuesday afternoon, urging the veteran leader to respect the unanimous decision of the party apex decision making body parliamentary Board, which had rejected his resignation with hours of its submission on Monday.
Singh announced that as the BJP president he would address all the concerns of Advani, bringing down the curtain on an embarrassing episode.
The BJP and its ideological fountainhead RSS had never expected Advani to resign in protest against ignoring his opposition to Modi’s appointment as the party central election committee chairman.
RSS was upset since Advani’s resignation was threatening to tarnish the images of both RSS and BJP. RSS’s worry was that the fact that it controls BJP and expects the party leaders to accept its decisions was confirmed by Advani through his hard-hitting resignation letter. BJP was concerned that its inability to have one of its founder members by its side would dent its prospects of coming to power after next year’s general elections.
BJP chief Rajnath Singh had to issue a clarification on Tuesday stating that RSS had no role in Modi’s elevation in the party set up, in order to save embarrassment to the parent organisation which had handpicked him late last year to head the party.
Singh in his bid to placate Advani explained to him that merely making Modi chairman of the party’s central election committee does not automatically make him its prime ministerial candidate.
Singh also promised Advani that he would be duly consulted when the time to name the prime ministerial candidate comes up.
Advani was also under pressure of his supporters including Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar, M Venkaiah Naidu, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha to relent as they felt their political future would get undermined if Advani remained adamant and got marginalised in the party.
Despite the truce, the Advani camp, however, is fully aware of the consequences of Modi remaining chairman of the campaign committee in view of state assembly elections coming up in five states later this year. BJP is in a strong position to win all five states and credit for this will automatically go to Modi. Modi’s stature and confidence will go up considering third successive victory in Gujarat late last year and snatching five seats including two Lok Sabha seats from the rival congress party in recent by-elections have already made him the tallest BJP leader.
By Ajay Jha Chief Correspondent
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
