Wednesday, June 12, 2013

BJP mollifies Advani, assures a say in selecting prime ministerial candidate

 Barely 36 hours after he resigned from all posts he occupied in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Lal Krishna Advani has snatched a tactical victory from the jaws of retirement. The biggest crisis in the BJP's history may have appeared to be no more than an extended sulk, but Advani stayed on top of the twists and turns of the resolution process to wring out important concessions from the party's parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), on the way the party is run. The interface between the BJP and RSS came out from behind the shadows as the crisis was resolved.
Advani has clipped the wings of the triumvirate that comprises BJP president Rajnath Singh, RSS pointperson in the BJP Suresh Soni, and BJP general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal. In the process Advani has refurbished somewhat his ties with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and his protege Nitin Gadkari, creating a counterbalancing axis of his own that also includes RSS general secretary Bhaiyaji Joshi.
Advani's greatest success-and the condition on which his return was predicated-was to make Gadkari and Bhaiyaji agree that they would keep him abreast of all decision making, a gamechanger that was then communicated to Rajnath. RSS chief Bhagwat, whose advice in late 2011 to Advani on making way for younger blood hasn't stopped resonating in the party, was also brought on board the new saffron order of things by Gadkari.
Advani also managed to restrict the influence of Narendra Modi, following his recent appointment as campaign committee chief, by reiterating the importance of the central election committee.
In an attempt to mollify the sulking patriarch, BJP president Rajnath Singh said: "Whenever he (Advani) raises any concerns related to the party, I will personally address them." Singh did deliver a subtle message to Advani, saying that he "had decided to abide by the decision of the parliamentary board (to take back his resignation)".
By extension, it meant that Advani will have to accept the party's decision to elevate Modi as the chairman of the election campaign committee. Even though Singh and the RSS spared no effort in imploring Advani to take back his resignation, they made it clear that the decision to appoint Modi as the campaign in-charge was irreversible.
          BJP vice-president Prabhat Jha told that, BJP have the utmost respect for Advaniji, but the national executive's decision also has to be respected. As a concession, the RSS and the party leadership have assured Advani that the decision on the BJP's prime ministerial candidate will be kept opend-ended.
They assured him that he would be consulted in detail when the time for the decision comes. Advani has also supposedly been assured of a dominant say in the distribution of tickets, through the central election committee.
Some believe this could be a way of keeping a subtle check on the influence of Narendra Modi. Unlike previous campaign committee chairmen like Pramod Mahajan (2004) and Arun Jaitley (2009), Modi is not just the campaign in-charge, he will also be the chief campaigner of the party. The deal between Advani and the party leadership was brokered by the RSS. RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat spoke to Advani. A critical role in bringing Advani to an agreement was played by RSS protege and former BJP president Nitin Gadkari. Gadkari arrived in Delhi early in the morning. He reached Advani's residence and stayed there throughout the day, until the deal was finally struck.
Another part of the agreement could be a modification in the manner in which RSS-BJP relations are being managed. One of Advani's demands were supposedly that the influence of RSS leader Suresh Soni be checked. This suits Gadkari and Bhagwat as well as Soni had played a critical role in nixing the former's second term as BJP president.
The main grouse which prompted Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) patriarch L.K. Advani to resign on Monday is the influence the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) continues to wield in party affairs but his desperate act, ironically, ended up reinforcing the RSS's power over the BJP.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat personally intervened in the matter, which compelled Advani to kiss and make up with BJP president Rajnath Singh. From here on, Rajnath Singh will have to take Advani on board viz major decisions. This was communicated by Bhagwat to Rajnath. However, Advani might have been able to achieve a subtle change in the manner in which RSS-BJP relations are being managed.
Party sources reveal that even though Advani has been engaged in a tug-of-war with the RSS, his antipathy is particularly focused on a faction of the organisation headed by Suresh Soni who is currently number three in the Sangh hierarchy.
It is believed that Advani's discontent has been amplified over the past three months as party affairs are being dominated by a troika of Soni, his protege Ram Lal who is the BJP's general secretary (organisation), and Rajnath Singh, who is also known to be close to Soni. This troika has played a crucial role in Narendra Modi's rise within the party in the past few months.
Soni is said to have played a critical role in scuttling Advani's proposal of including Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the parliamentary board, as he had an old axe to grind with him.
Sources said that an unsaid aspect of the 'peace deal' between Advani, the RSS and the party leadership, is that Soni's wings will be clipped. This can be seen from the crucial role played by not just Bhagwat, but also his protégé Nitin Gadkari and RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, in brokering the deal.
This could involve a repeat of a formula prepared by Gadkari during his presidency, whereby RSS-BJP relations are managed not just by Soni, but by a collegium which comprises RSS Sarkaryavah Suresh 'Bhaiyaji' Joshi and Sah Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale, in addition to Soni.
This arrangement could also bring about a subtle rapproachment between Advani on one hand and Bhagwat and Gadkari on the other.


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