TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal Krishna Advani, will not be attending the meeting even on the second day on Sunday citing ill-health, further fueling speculation over his reported reservations over projecting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the party prime ministerial candidate or on the BJP’s campaign committee for 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The senior leader did not attend on the first day, but was supposed to come on the second day.
Uma Bharti, Yashwant Sinha, Varun Gandhi and Shatrughan Sinha were some of the other leaders who are also absent from the two-day national executive meeting, with Yashwant Sinha reportedly telling TV channels that his own “indisposition” was not a case of “NaMonia.”
This is the only time, in the party’s history, that the 85-year-old Advani is not attending the BJP national executive, apparently to express his opposition to making Modi the campaign committee chief, which will in effect present him as the face of the party for the next general elections.
Addressing a press conference soon after the inaugural of the national executive meeting on Saturday morning, Javadekar said that party president Rajnath Singh in his presidential address informed executives that Advani is unwell and he will not be attending the meeting.
“Advaniji wanted to attend the meeting if not today at least tomorrow. Doctor has advised him to take rest for two-three days and so the president has informed Advani ji to stay back and rest,” he said.
“The BJP chief has asked Advaniji not to strain himself,” Javadekar said, adding that Advaniji has offered his well wishes for the party’s meeting.
“While concluding the speech Rajnath said that if required national executive will go to Advaniji,” Javadekar said adding “all the decisions of the party will be taken only after consulting senior leader Advaniji’.
The senior leader was speaking while responding to the question on whether in Advani’s absence, the party will decide and announce Modi name as party campaign manager for the forthcoming general elections.
BJP caught in dilemma over Advani-Modi rift?
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Though the ongoing national executive was supposed to be the stage for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to be named for the larger national role, the BJP now finds itself in a dilemma as the party stands divided, underlined by the absence of patriarch Lal Krishna Advani and other senior leaders, who have not turned up for the crucial meeting in Goa.
Just two days before the scheduled national executive meeting, senior party leaders including Advani had reportedly okayed Modi’s name as the party’s campaign chief for the general elections, which was supposed to be announced during their meeting in Goa.
The Bharatiya Janata Party sought to downplay the speculations over the ‘rift’ within the party by rationalizing that theirs was a party with a “perfect internal democracy.”“We are a perfect internal democratic party. We are not like the Congress where only one family will speak, only one party will provide a leader. And whatever they speak is the truth,” national spokesman Prakash Javdekar told media on Saturday, adding, “That is not our idea of how democracy works.”
He said that in the BJP everyone was free to express their opinion and they did. “Here everybody will express his opinion and we will come to a collective decision. The way we come to the collective decision is an unanimous decision,” he said.
Damodar Naik, Goa leader also said that a team would go to Advani’s residence, he said to apprise him and get his reaction. He also said that party President Rajnath Singh had himself spoken to the doctors and found out that he(Advani) is not well. “He is just like us, a human being,” he said when it was pointed out that this was the first executive meeting that the BJP stalwart had missed.
The BJP also promised that they would ensure that mining starts and said that hopefully it would be done before the general elections.
“The way that mining, even legal mining has been stalled, it has made people suffer, we will ensure immediate relief from suffering. Even our chief minister is trying now and we hope that before elections the decision will come,” Javdekar said.
The suspense still continued as Rajnath Singh announced in his presidential address that the meeting would end on a positive note and every one will go back happy. Even the party spokespersons have not ruled out that a decision could be taken by Sunday when the executive meet would conclude.
“Wait till tomorrow….in BJP we don’t take decisions without consensus at the top level,” Javadekar told media when asked whether a decision on Modi as campaign chief would be taken in the absence of Advani.
Javadekar said the senior leader Advani ji had conveyed his blessings for the meet which he was unable to attend due to ill-health. He said making it clear that party is likely to go ahead with a major decision.
Similarly, party vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, told media persons that the party is going to make a major announcement by Sunday that will strengthen the organisation and project it as an alternative to the UPA government. He was responding to a question on whether Modi will be appointed as the campaign committee head by the end of the conclave.
Meanwhile, sources said that a senior party leader close to Advani is likely to raise objections to the announcement about Modi’s role in the absence of Advani.
The various options available
Faced with the dilemma, the various options before BJP appear to be — that they go ahead and announce Modi’s name as a pre eminent player for the 2014 Lok Sabha on Sunday. While this option has the support of a majority of BJP leaders apart from the Advani camp, it is learnt that party president Rajnath Singh is trying to effect a compromise. He reportedly got in touch with Advani late in Saturday evening to try and secure his nod for a move to name Modi as convenor rather than chairman of the BJP campaign committee. However, it could not be ascertained whether either Modi or Advani were amenable to this compromise formula. It may be noted that as convenor Modi would not chair the campaign committee meeting as they would continue to be chaired by party president.
The second option being discussed by the BJP is to go ahead and announce Modi as the chairman of the campaign committee despite Advani’s and other senior leaders’ reservations. This option, however is likely to come into play only if the RSS top brass directs the party president to do so regardless of Advani’s stand.
In all of this, the man in the middle ~Modi himself ~ is known to be furious and has told aides in Goa that the party should stop embarrassing him and make a spectacle of itself. But senior leaders including Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar have in the meanwhile reported to have impressed upon the party chief that their tallest leader Advani must be consulted and taken on board before any decision Sunday.
