The Hindu Business Line : Advani exit move — What lies ahead for the BJP?

Mr Advani has bought time till December to ensure that the party's leadership is in capable hands as it gets ready for the forthcoming elections in Bihar. But in the meantime, the machinations have begun among the second-rung leaders with an eye on the party's top slot.

The BJP President, Mr L. K. Advani...estranged from the Parivar? — Rajeev Bhatt

THE Bharatiya Janata Party's loh purush finally gave in. At the party's three-day national executive that concluded in Chennai on September 18, Mr L. K. Advani, hardly created any ripples when he announced that he would be stepping down from the party's presidentship at the Mumbai meeting in December.

What a letdown for the man who was one of the two "tallest leaders" of the BJP not so long ago.

But, then, Mr Advani has had to learn that one cannot head a party that is so firmly bound to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and yet hope to tread a path as controversial as he sought to do during his Pakistan visit.

Not a man given to either spontaneous outbursts or bouts of praise, after his Jinnah-is-secular comment, he suddenly found that all his admirers within the party, including his proteges, had suddenly disappeared.

As the entire Sangh Parivar bayed for his blood, the RSS, politely but firmly, and the VHP, shrilly, , asked him to step down as BJP President.

It was only a leader of the stature of Mr Advani who could drag the issue a couple of months and retain his dignity by insisting that he would take his own time to announce his resignation and that he should be given that space.

That he did get that space would have been of little consolation to Mr Advani because when he did make the announcement at the BJP conclave in Chennai, there was not even a whimper of protest. Instead what Mr Advani saw was a scramble for the kursi he would vacate.

Worse, the RSS stoutly denied that the BJP president had to step down because of the pressure from the apex Sangh outfit. As soon as Mr Advani announced his intention to step down, the RSS spokesman, Mr Ram Madhav, denied that the RSS had put any pressure on Mr Advani.

But was it a mere co-incidence that the RSS chief, Mr K. S. Sudarshan, was in Chennai during the BJP meet? What was even more significant was that he travelled to Chennai along with Mr Murli Manohar Joshi, one of the harshest critics of Mr Advani's Jinnah remarks.

Mr Joshi has also made it known to his supporters, though not publicly, that he is very much in the race for the party presidentship for yet another stint.

But, of course, Mr Madhav said that Mr Sudarshan's visit to Chennai during the BJP meet was only a co-incidence. He went on to say that the RSS would have no role in anointing the next BJP president. But, surely, he does not think that anybody will take him seriously!

Mr Advani also showed his ire at the RSS when he urged it to stop meddling in the day-to-day affairs of the BJP saying that would only weaken the party's structure. Even here, he stood alone because none of his colleagues in the BJP would go on record to support him. On the contrary, off the record, many BJP leaders said sarcastically that Mr Advani had criticised the RSS more in response to the prodding from newspaper editorials!

On its part the RSS brushed aside Mr Advani's advice to its leadership to refrain from interfering in the BJP's affairs. Mr Madhav had a convenient answer for this one too — the "media," which was blamed for reporting everything wrong.

"I think the media has got it wrong. What he said was that there is a growing impression outside that the Sangh is interfering in running of the BJP and this impression needs to be corrected by the Sangh and BJP." And that the RSS "would discuss this suggestion."

Ostensibly, Mr Advani has bought time till December to ensure that the party's leadership is in capable hands as it gets ready to challenge the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, Mr Lalu Prasad, in the forthcoming Bihar elections.

Though the junior partner in Bihar, where the Janata Dal-U's Mr Nitish Kumar will be projected as the coalition's chief ministerial candidate, the BJP will face a tough time because of the internal turmoil and the failure of even Mr Advani's closest allies to take on the Parivar, particularly the RSS, and rally around him. If the JD(U)-BJP combine manages to show Mr Lalu Prasad the door, it will be sweet revenge for the BJP. But that remains a big question mark. Political outfits with demoralised leaderships do not enthuse the grassroots worker, and after its rout in the 2004 General Elections, the BJP has stumbled from one crisis to another. From Uma Bharti's tantrums, through the intermittent revolts in Gujarat against the Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, to Madanlal Khurana's expulsion to the tug-of-war between the loh purush and the vikas purush, each of these episodes has made the BJP, the "party with a difference", "inner party democracy", etc., look that much more vulnerable. As the BJP struggles to hold on to the fig-leaf of independence vis-à-vis the RSS, on the other side of the political divide, the Congress(I) seems to be sitting pretty.

The BJP may fault the Manmohan Singh regime on a thousand counts, and the Left leaders may try to rock the boat from time to time by refusing to attend UPA co-ordination committee meetings or oppose everything the Government does on the economic reforms front, and wave a red rag before the rising equity indices, but the Congress(I)-led Government seems firmly in the saddle and all set to complete a full five-year term unless the Congress(I) itself decides to call for a mid-term poll. Even a probable loss in Bihar for the `secular front', where it hardly has a presence anyway, will not dent its political clout. But as the BJP begins its search for its next president, it seems things will only get worse in the coming months as the second-rung leaders begin machinations and intrigues in their quest for the crown. There will be yatras to the RSS headquarters to seek patronage, and even as it protests that it will have nothing to do with the crowning of the next BJP president, the RSS is bound to savour its moment of triumph.

(Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in)

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