PM race: Sangh is cold,Advani keeps it vague

“I have got so much from the party and the country ever since I started working in politics after being inspired by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee that it’s much more than the prime minister’s post,” Advani said in reply to a question at an impromptu press conference at BJP chief Nitin Gadkari’s home.

Immediately after this,Advani stood up with folded hands and left smiling.

Advani was in Nagpur to seek the RSS’s support for his anti-corruption yatra,and to meet Gadkari. The RSS has promised support to the yatra,which he would like to complete before Parliament’s winter session,Advani told reporters.

RSS sources said that Advani’s non-committal response to the question of his PMship suggested that he was probably no longer in the race. Saying so directly immediately after a meeting with Bhagwat might have given the impression that the Sangh had issued a directive to him to step aside,the sources added.

The sources said that Gadkari had visited the Sangh headquarters in the morning,before Advani arrived. He was not present at Bhagwat’s meeting with the veteran leader.

RSS spokesman Ram Madhav told The Indian Express that only Advani’s yatra was discussed at the meeting. Asked to comment on the debate over the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate,he said,“Why should the RSS discuss or react to any speculation?”

Sources,however,said that in meetings held on September 15 and 16 at the Royal Tiger Resort at the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve,five top leaders of the RSS had decided to support Narendra Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate,and to ask Advani to play mentor.

The five leaders — Bhagwat,Dattatraya Hosbale,Suresh Soni,Madan Das Devi and Bhaiyyaji Joshi — had gone on a visit around TATR on the morning of September 16 before continuing discussions in the afternoon,the sources said.

“It was only after this meeting that Soni was sent to meet the fasting Narendra Modi and extend the support of the Sangh for his Sadbhavana mission,” said a source.

The RSS,the sources said,had all but made up its mind to throw its weight behind Modi as PM candidate. “It is only logical that the Sangh,which had earlier taken the stand that top BJP leaders like Advani and Vajpayee should pave the way for younger leaders,and also led by example by appointing Mohan Bhagwat in place of the ageing K Sudarshan,should ask Advani to play mentor,” said a source.

The sources,however,underscored that while lending its support to Modi,the Sangh would not like leaders like Gadkari,Sushma Swaraj or Arun Jaitley to play “second fiddle” to him. “In fact,the RSS wants the party to be multipolar,or at least bipolar,” they said.

According to these sources,Gadkari himself could be a potential PM candidate after entering the poll fray in 2014 from Nagpur with RSS backing. “He has been preparing himself,and has visited some foreign countries to familiarise himself with international relations,” they said.

Some in the RSS,however,support the one-man-one-post principle,and would prefer that Gadkari stays out of the race as long as he is party president.

Sangh parivar sources in Delhi said the RSS brass was unhappy over the unnecessary debate over leadership that Advani’s yatra announcement had triggered at a time when the BJP should be focused on cornering the UPA.

At a meeting with Advani last week,Bhaiyyaji Joshi had conveyed to him the RSS position that he must “de-link” his yatra from the leadership issue,these sources said. The RSS would support the yatra as a political campaign against corruption,but wanted no focus on the leadership question now.

(With ENS,New Delhi)