For Rajnath Singh, still struggling to establish his authority as party chief, it provided a good opportunity to back a state unit against Advani. And for GenNext leaders, almost all of who belong to the politically less prestigious Rajya Sabha, keeping Varun out of the House of the People made political sense.

But the most important reason is rooted in Varun’s behaviour and personality that, in the space of just two years, has eroded much of the goodwill he initially enjoyed in the BJP. When he joined the party along with his mother in February 2004, the NDA was in power and no one dreamed of a Congress comeback. For the BJP, eager to establish itself as the new ruling dispensation of India, a Nehru-Gandhi scion was a prize catch — never mind Varun’s declaration that he would not campaign against Rahul or Sonia Gandhi. But in those early days, Varun was more than just his surname. BJP leaders, including the seasoned Pramod Mahajan, could not stop exulting over the young man’s “amazing” grasp of Indian politics, his political “maturity”, his skilful oratory and mass appeal. He was just 24 and the saffron-hued world was seemingly at his feet.

Not for long. Varun’s abiding self-confidence and inborn desire for leadership soon came to be seen as misplaced arrogance and overweening ambition that was more than a little unseemly. Varun, BJP insiders started to whisper, was a little too conscious of his family’s legacy — a legacy that may make Congressmen swoon with sycophancy but evokes little resonance in the Parivar or party. Varun was fine as the new whizkid on the saffron block but only so long as he was content with being a kid. When he made it clear that he would settle for nothing less than the post of general secretary and saw himself as Rahul Gandhi’s counterpart in the BJP, many of his early well-wishers started disappearing. He might have Advani and Sudarshan on his side, they sniggered, but the BJP was not the Congress Party.

... contd.