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BJP : Advani gets further isolated

	September 26, 2005

BJP president L.K. Advani’s splendid isolation in his own party has further deepened with no party leader of any significance coming forward to support his statement at the Chennai national executive meeting asking the RSS not to interfere in the party’s functioning. This became clear on Wednesday, Sept. 21, when Advani chaired a meeting of party general secretaries at his residence in New Delhi. Party spokesperson Sushma Swaraj virtually distanced herself from Advani’s remarks about RSS interference in party affairs. Asked by reporters if she or other leaders supported Advani’s view that the impression about the RSS remote controlling the BJP was damaging the party, she said : “It is not important that every person should endorse or not.” She said there is no precedent that the party must support what its president had said.



Sushma Swaraj claimed that the issue of Advani’s exit from the top party post had not been discussed at the meeting, but party sources contradicted her assertion. Reports say that Advani dwelt at the meeting on the likely fall out of his impending resignation and his remarks. The party, however, made no secret of its intention not to defend Advani for his statements against the RSS.



When asked if the party supported Advani’s observations, Swaraj avoided giving a direct reply. “What I can say is that it has not been discussed at the general secretaries’ meeting.” She said there was no need for her to comment on the party president’s statement.



She said the RSS had already reacted to it, saying the issues raised by Advani would be discussed at an appropriate forum.



On the possibility of the party putting pressure on Advani to continue even beyond the Mumbai plenary in December, Swaraj asked : “Where is the option ?” She said Advani had already announced his decision. The party spokesperson ruled out any adverse impact of this on the party’s prospects in the Bihar Assembly elections.



Another senior leader of the party, former president Venkaiah Naidu also refused to react to Advani’s remarks about the RSS. He said : “There is no need for each of us to comment on what Advani had said.”



The meeting at Advani’s residence was attended by senior leaders like former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh besides Venkaiah Naidu, Bal Apte, V.K. Malhotra and Sushma Swaraj.





Advani not to figure on party posters



Another significant clue to the virtually complete isolation of Advani in the BJP is indicated by the party decision that majority of party posters to be distributed during the coming Assembly elections in Bihar will be those of former Prime Minister Vajpayee and NDA’s chief-ministerial candidate, Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United). Advani will be nowhere in the picture.



Faced with the cool response from his party colleagues, Advani is planning to visit Palampur, in Himachal Pradesh and Somnath, in Gujarat, to show that he is not against Hindutva. Both these places are landmarks for BJP’s Hindutva politics and have been chosen for marking the party’s silver jubilee this year. It was in June 1989 in Palampur that the BJP national executive had adopted for the first time a resolution endorsing the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s demand for handing over the disputed site at Ayodhya for the construction of a Ram temple. Advani’s visit to Somnath in Gujarat will coincide with the anniversary of his Rath Yatra to Ayodhya in 1990.



Observers say that Advani has now even less clout in the party than during the episode resulting from his remarks about Pakistan founder Mohd. Ali Jinnah’s secular credentials. At that time also, no party leader of note had supported his remarks, but at least they had requested him to continue as party president. At the present juncture, no leader in the party wants him to go back upon his decision to quit as party chief at the end of the year.





Search for new party chief



Advani’s announcement a week back to quit as party chief has intensified the race in the organisation to emerge as the new president. Party leaders have not been wary of emphasising that the RSS leadership will have a decisive say in selecting the new party president. Consultations for this have begun between top Sangh and BJP leaders and are likely to intensify in the coming weeks. There are reports that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will have a decisive contribution in the selection of the next president to replace Advani in December. A BJP leader said : “Our effort is to find a leader who has leadership qualities along with organisational experience and capability, who can take everyone along.”



Over the last year and more, there has not been a single election in the BJP, right from the block and ‘mandal’ levels to the district and State levels. As for the position of party president, the BJP has not seen even one election since it was founded in 1980 and is not expected to see a contested election this time.



The favourities at the moment seem to be former party president Murli Manohar Joshi, party general secretary, Rajnath Singh and BJP Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj. However, party insiders have cautioned that a “dark horse” could emerge the victor. According to a report, RSS would prefer a person like party vice president Bal Apte to emerge as consensual candidate for the post.



Apte, in his sixties, may not be a mass leader, but is a respected figure in the Sangh Parivar. Associated with the Sangh from a young age, he had graduated from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad to the Jan Sangh which got transformed into the BJP. Known for his organising ability, Apte is more in the mould of an ideologue with a sharp intellect, a quality that he demonstrated in his career as a Supreme Court lawyer.



The odd against Dr. Joshi may be his age - the party may want to project a more youthful leader although it is admitted that he, more than any other minister in the Vajpayee Government, tried to fulfil the RSS agenda.



Swaraj has the disadvantage of not coming from the RSS stable. She started her political career as a socialist although no one in the party doubts her commitment to the Sangh ideology.



Rajnath Singh, a former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, has recently demonstrated that he can swing an election in the BJP’s favour even when the odds are stacked against it, as he did as general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh where he dislodged Ajit Jogi from the chief-ministership although he was considered invincible. More recently, he won an electoral victory for the BJP in Jharkhand when the party had itself given up the task as impossible.



The process of selection of a new party leader, followed by formal election and then the taking of charge at the Mumbai session is expected to begin soon. A returning officer would be appointed after a meeting of party office-bearers sand then a timetable would be declared to complete the formality of the election process.





BJP gearing up to play Opposition role



After side-stepping the controversy generated by Advani’s attempt to bring about a confrontation with the RSS, the BJP is now gearing itself up to play the role of an aggressive opposition. The party has chalked out a series of programmes to go back to the agitational mode and mobilise various sections of the people. A week-long agitational programme has been launched by the party on Sunday, Sept. 25, to highlight the KGB-Congress-CPI nexus revealed in Mitrokhin’s book, The Mitrokhin Archives - the KGB and the World.





The book written by former KGB functionary Vasili Mitrokhin, was published earlier this month, and has already created a storm with its revelations about how the KGB allegedly funded the Congress and the CPI in the seventies.



“We want to seek a clarification from the Congress and the CPI on the disclosures made in the book,” BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj told newspersons.



The party has simultaneously decided to hold mass mobilization programmes to lure weaker social categories such as dalits, tribals and women by highlighting the problems faced by them. While a dalit rally will be held in Bhopal early next month, the party’s Mahila Morcha (Women’s Front) will hold its own show of strength soon after. Another rally, this time to focus on tribal issues, will be held in the Jharkhand capital, Ranchi.



The party is planning to go whole-hog to put the Manmohan Singh Government in the dock for its failure to tackle the woes of the common man. “Our attempt will be to project the UPA government as pro-rich and pro-elite. It has paid only lip service to bring about an improvement in the lot of the poor, the farmers and the middle class, all of whom have been hard hit by some of the measures taken by the Centre,” a BJP office-bearer said.