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BJP : Advani declared prime-ministerial choice

	December 17, 2007

At long last, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani has been chosen as the party’s prime-ministerial candidate. He would be Prime Minister if the BJP-led alliance wins the next general election.



The decision announced by party president Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Dec. 10 signifies Advani’s comeback since the Jinnah controversy two and a half years ago, after which he was sidelined by the parent organisation, the RSS.



Rajnath Singh announced the party’s decision after a meeting of the BJP’s highest policy-making body, the Parliamentary Board.



Reports say that the announcement came after the RSS and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee agreed to the proposal some time back.



Rajnath Singh said Vajpayee’s message was read out at the parliamentary board meeting and approved unanimously.



“I had met Vajpayeeji. He told me it had become difficult for him to play an active role in the party because of health reasons and, hence, Advaniji should lead,” he told a news conference attended by M.M. Joshi, Venkaiah Naidu, Jaswant Singh, Arun Jaitley, Bal Apte, Ram Lal and Anant Kumar.



“Now the Lok Sabha elections are round the corner. Advaniji will lead... but Vajpayeeji’s affection and guidance will always be available.”



Advani, who had been leading the party for all practical purposes, avoided a speech.



“I express my heartfelt gratitude to the party, the party president and Atalji and pray to God that he gives me strength to shoulder this responsibility,” he said as he received bouquets and sweets. He refused to take questions.



Advani’s rise to this position after Vajpayee might have been a natural process but he lost his undisputed primacy within the party when he made the cardinal error of praising Mohammed Ali Jinnah as a “secular” leader in June 2005.



It contradicted what the RSS had believed all these decades. Even the younger leaders, all groomed by Advani, did not stand by their mentor. A furious RSS forced him to quit as party president within the year and got Rajnath appointed in his place.



Advani also angered the Sangh, used to micro-managing the BJP, by saying the party needed greater freedom in running its day-to-day affairs.



The Sangh said it would support Advani. “Whatever decision is taken by the BJP, it has our support,” Sangh spokesman Ram Madhav said.



Party sources said the senior leadership of both the RSS and the BJP wanted the issue to be settled before the Gujarat outcome. “If we win Gujarat, then the spotlight will be on Modi and if we lose, we will be on the defensive. All the people involved in the decision-making thought an announcement should not be delayed any further,” a party source said.



For the record, the party insisted that the timing has nothing to do with Gujarat.



Most allies of the BJP in the National Democratic Alliance have welcomed L.K. Advani being designated as the BJP’s prime-ministerial candidate. The parties include Janata Dal (United), Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal.



Observers say that the Congress was taken by surprise at the development, but chose to downplay the event.



“He has been the Prime Minister-in-waiting for long, with a long waiting period still. But he should never forget there are several other Prime Ministers-in-waiting in his party with daggers drawn,” spokesperson Abhishek M. Singhvi said. The Congress’s understanding was the decision to name Advani had more to do with the BJP’s power dynamics than with a strategy aimed at challenging its rival.



Asked if the move would affect the Gujarat polls, a central Congress functionary working in the state said: “It’s good for the Congress as nobody likes him here (Gujarat). After he saluted Jinnah (in Karachi), his effigies were burnt.”



Sources said the small crowds and the lacklustre response to Advani’s poll rallies showed his fading appeal. “Nobody sees him as a challenge to Modi. Advani wins from Gandhinagar (Lok Sabha) thanks to Modi. The decision will make no difference,” said a general secretary.



But the Congress will watch closely how naming Advani affects power equations within the BJP. Eyes will also be fixed on how the National Democratic Alliance’s “secular” constituents react.





Advani to make efforts to consolidate NDA



Observers say the first task L.K. Advani, as the prime-ministerial candidate of the BJP, will take up after the Gujarat and Himachal elections are over, will be to look at ways to consolidate the National Democratic Alliance. Reports say Advani is planning to call a meeting of NDA constituents as soon as the Assembly elections are over. He wants the NDA to get into the election mode as he feels that Parliamentary elections cannot be pushed beyond 2008 in view of the sparring between the Congress and the Left parties on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.



While most leaders of parties belonging to the NDA called up Advani on Tuesday to register their support to the BJP’s decision to project him as the prime ministerial candidate, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav significantly called a press conference to say that his party had “no objection” to the decision to go into elections under Advani’s leadership.



Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar spoke to Advani before Yadav made the formal statement on behalf of his party, which makes the situation quite different from the time that JD(U) was opposed to Advani as PM for his hardline Hindutva image.



“BJP is the largest ally of NDA and it is for that party to take a decision. So, his (Advani’s) choice is natural,” Yadav said in his statement on Tuesday.



Other NDA allies who spoke to Advani over phone included Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, Punjab Chief Minister and Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal and Orissa Chief Minister and BJD leader Naveen Patnaik.



Among non-NDA leaders, though AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha did not call, her party’s Rajya Sabha MP V Maitreyan spoke to Advani after the announcement came.



While Advani called on Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Tuesday evening, RSS chief K S Sudarshan called the BJP leader and congratulated him over phone and said that he would come calling later this month when he is in Delhi.