|
BJP : Vajpayee still party’s prime-ministerial candidate |
 |
While the Congress is worried over suicides by farmers, the BJP, which some observers think is on the come-back trail, is caught up in the controversy over who will be its prime-ministerial candidate in two-and-a-half years’ time when the country has general elections in 2009. The issue came to the fore when senior party leader L.K. Advani indicated in a TV interview that he would be the party’s candidate for the Prime Minister in the next Lok Sabha elections, but he said, he does not expect former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to propose his name.
“While I had given his name for prime-ministership in the first place, I don’t expect him to return that favour to me,” Advani said in an interview with a TV channel.
In reply to a question, Advani said, “If you look at the British system, it is always the leader of opposition who is the Prime Minister-in-waiting.”
Asked if this did not compromise party chief Rajnath Singh’s position, Advani stated : “The party would decide what to do with Rajnath Singh.” He also admitted that despite being leader of the opposition, he is no longer involved with the day-to-day running of his party, but is merely a “consultant.”
Advani, who had to relinquish the top party post under RSS pressure after his remarks on Jinnah, said : “Earlier, I also took great interest in organizational matters. I have stopped that. I am more of a consultant now.”
The BJP, faced with acute embarrassment over Advani’s reported remarks, called the pre-telecast Press release of the programme as “reporting with malicious intent.” The party found a whole lot of difference between the context Advani had spoken and pre-telecast press release of the interview.
BJP president Rajnath Singh met Vajpayee on December 11 to discuss the issue. He also met RSS joint general secretary Madan Das Devi.
As the controversy was dying down, Rajnath Singh opened the debate all over again on December 14 when he told a TV channel that Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani are the only prime-miniserial candidates of the BJP. He said he does not aspire to be a prime-ministerial candidate if he BJP comes back to power in 2009.
On being told that Vajpayee had said he did not want to be Prime Minister again, Rajnath Singh merely said, “We will see when the time comes.”
BJP protest against “minorityism”
The BJP has started a week-long campaign against what it calls the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s politics of appeasement of Muslims keeping in mind the coming Assembly elections. Party president Rajnath Singh said last week that all party MPs will be going to their constituencies and garnering support for the campaign against UPA’s politics of minorityism. The campaign started on Dec. 15. The issue is also expected to figure at the BJP national executive and national council meeting to be held in Lucknow from December 21 to 24. BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra said in New Delhi on December 13, “Terrorism, UPA government’s policy of Muslim appeasement and increasing inflation will be the focal points of discussion at the BJP national executive meeting.”
The party would hold a rally on December 24, ticking off its electoral campaign for the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states early next year.
|
