“We understand that it’ll be an NDA and not a BJP Government, so you decide what you can do, and what you cannot vis-à-vis our core Hindu agenda. The entire Parivar is firmly behind you, but there should be more such interactions,” Bhagwat said at the marathon meeting. He added that the BJP must, however, ensure that “Hinduon ka anadar naa ho (that the Hindus are not shown disrespect)”.

Friday’s meeting at Advani’s residence, said a leader who was present there, was about “ideas, and roadmap for Lok Sabha elections”. To a question on “his differences with party president Rajnath Singh”, Advani said in Ahmedabad on Sunday: “Let me tell you very frankly that there are no differences at all between us. Rajnath Singh is a great party worker and is working very hard to see BJP’s victory in next parliamentary elections.”

The upshot of the meeting, said sources, was that the “broader Parivar now realises the importance of pragmatism and compulsions of being in Government”. “This was also stressed by Advani in his 2005 Chennai speech. As the NDA’s PM candidate, he remains the undisputed leader of the party and the alliance. Rajnath Singh will continue to take decisions after consulting him,” sources said.

Bhagwat is also learnt to have said that the Mumbai terror attacks were “a humiliation of the country that must be avenged in the elections and that the feud in the Parivar must not be allowed to benefit the Congress that has heaped insults on the Hindus”.

The discernible shift in the RSS towards “compulsions of coalition politics”, say insiders, is to do a lot with the “pragmatic approach” of Bhagwat. While Devi is considered sympathetic to Advani, Soni is the chief backer of Rajnath in the Parivar.