Will L.K.Advani simply fade away?

O J George

Those who want rejuvenation of the flagging BJP want the senior leadership to give way for younger blood to take up the reins to lead the party to greater glory.

BJP president Rajnath Singh and Parliamentary Party Leader L.K.Advani should step down and second rung leadership should come in, according to this argument.
Peeved at the dismal show in the Lok Sabha elections, the RSS is also keen to have new leadership for the BJP.

All this is easier said than done, for Advani is not that a throw-away. Perhaps, Rajnath Singh can be given some role and appeased.

After A.B.Vajpayee, who is keeping ill-health, Advani is the tallest leader, even though he had erred in his judgement to provide a softer side to his fundamentalism.

Sudheendra Kulkarni might have misled him into saying that Mohamed Ali Jinnah was a secularist. Now Jaswant Singh has gone a little beyond that, glorifying Jinnah and blaming leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru for partition.

The rout of the party in the Lok Sabha elections, causing disappointment for not forming a government of its own at the Centre, had spurred sections of the party and the RSS itself to take steps to streamline the party.

There was a call for the immediate replacement of Rajnath Singh, but he refused to cave in. He wanted to live out his tenure as the BJP president which ends in December this year.

Advani said on and off that he would give up the post of Parliamentary Party Leader. But that was not immediately implemented, but Sushma Swaraj was appointed deputy leader.

Now the RSS has made its plea louder, meaning Advani should also go. He may be given time till February to wind up business and fade away into oblivion.

Having said all this, with the second rung leadership at loggerheads with each other, exit of Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and the immobilization of Arun Shourie, it is a moot question whether people like Arun Jaitely, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu, could lead the party to greater glory.

Incidentally, RSS chief Mohan Bhagavat has observed the successors would not be from Delhi. That means all these people would be out of the fray. Maybe Nitin Gadkari, leader from Maharashtra or Manohar Parikar from Goa could be RSS’ pick. But then Parikar had called Advani spoiled pickles.

All the same will all the Delhiwallahs line up behind a junior leader? Most of all, will Advani who celebrated his 83rd birthday on Sunday walk into the sunset? Will there be a larger-than-thou image for him afterwards?