By Faraz Ahmad, IANS
New Delhi : The timing itself was a giveaway. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared L.K. Advani their prime ministerial candidate for the next general elections the evening before round one of the Gujarat polls, leading to speculation about the internal dynamics of the party and its electoral compulsions.
On record, BJP leaders refused to explain the significance of this poll eve announcement Monday evening. But frontline leaders admitted privately that the declaration could help boost the party’s morale because Advani was the party’s MP from Gandhinagar.
Another important factor that has weighed in Advani as the natural choice is that the party is worried not just over its electoral prospects but also about the leadership tussle within the BJP. One way or the other, whether Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi wins or loses this crucial ballot, there could be costs for the central leadership.
Insiders in the party disclose that Advani and other BJP leaders were drawing small gatherings during the campaign while Modi was attracting massive crowds.
If the BJP wins Gujarat, the entire credit for the victory would go to Modi, thus making him the probably most popular leader after Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But with this announcement, some credit would be shared by the Advani-led central leadership.
Some sections within the party close to Modi have already started projecting the Gujarat strongman as a future prime minister.
“If he wins the elections, the demand may become more vocal,” a top party leader told IANS. “But now that the post is filled, it effectively shuts out that option.”
Yet another reason for the snap declaration was the possibility that the central government could go in for a snap poll if the Congress party managed to pull off the impossible and win the election. In that case, it would be in the fitness of things to have settled the BJP’s leadership question.
Advani supporters must have worked hard to secure the “unanimous” announcement from the party’s parliamentary board.
The move to secure Advani’s candidature as prime minister was made just before the Bhopal National Executive meeting in September. But there, party president Rajnath Singh read out a message from Vajpayee assuring the BJP leaders that “I will soon be with you”, thus pouring cold water on Advani loyalists’ game plan.
Advani had no option but to back out then. But this time the decision by the entire parliamentary board was unanimous — including known Advani baiters like former party president Murli Manohar Joshi. In fact, in the true Sangh spirit of camaraderie and bonhomie, Joshi was the first to offer sweets to Advani in front of the cameras.
Advani’s got the slot. But the problem may not yet be over for Advani, particularly in his adopted home state Gujarat where all the dissidents led by two former chief ministers Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta (who quit the BJP Dec 8) hold him responsible for foisting Modi on them.
While quitting, Mehta said on record: “None of these (BJP) legislators were consulted before (then BJP president) L.K. Advani removed Keshubhai (in 2001 as chief minister) and appointed Modi in his place.”
Similar sentiments have been expressed by Keshubhai though in a less strident fashion. Others in Gujarat like former state home minister Gordhan Zadaphiya are equally bitter with Advani and the national leadership of the party.
According to a Congress leader, the latest development could make them “more determined” now to defeat the BJP. The logic would be that if the BJP wins, Advani would be further strengthened and so would Modi – he would need Modi’s active support to win the Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency in order to become the prime minister.