By Faraz Ahmad, IANS
New Delhi : Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is gearing up to contest the next general elections, apparently under the leadership of L.K. Advani, several prominent BJP men have stayed away from the three-day national executive underway in Bhopal.
Some like former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee have a genuine alibi. “His doctors have advised him against attending the meet,” said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday, two days before the meet began.
The same is perhaps the case with former BJP president and former union law minister K. Jana Krishnamurthy, who is convalescing in Chennai. His staff in Delhi told IANS: “He is now better but not well enough to travel to Bhopal.”
Then there is the former Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission K.C. Pant, who has also stayed back in Delhi. Several attempts by IANS to contact him and ask why he did not go for the national executive drew a blank.
Pant, a member of the national executive, was considered close to Vajpayee and with the former prime minister withdrawing into the background, Pant also seemed to have lost interest in the BJP affairs, indicated sources close to him.
Similarly the scion of Nehru-Gandhi family, late Sanjay Gandhi’s son Feroze Varun Gandhi, who was admitted to the BJP with much fanfare also did not go to Bhopal, nor did his mother and BJP MP Maneka Gandhi.
About Maneka her personal staff explained that since her mother was unwell she was attending to her. But “Varun is away in Uttar Pradesh and may return to Delhi only Saturday”, said the staff at her residence, 14, Ashoka Road, Friday.
Then there are some Gujarat leaders, former textiles minister Kashi Ram Rana, the BJP MP from Surat who is away in his constituency and has no intention to attend the meet. Similarly BJP MP from Rajkot, Valabbhai Kathiria, preferred to stay back in Delhi rather than go for the national executive.
There was no word from either of them on why they have stayed away. But the Gujarat MPs constitute the dissident group against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and their staying away might be a signal of sorts to the party high command, said a dissident BJP MP from Gujarat.