By IANS,
New Delhi : A day after its humiliating defeat, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday gave conflicting signals about the possibility of its prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani’s quitting as leader of opposition.
After maintaining through the day that Advani had made up his mind to step down, the party in the evening indicated he would continue in the post in the 15th Lok Sabha.
“Actually, Advaniji expressed his desire�the whole party has rejected his request and Advaniji is like a father figure to us all, he will continue to guide us from that position,” party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters.
“Rajnathji (party president Rajnath Singh) will talk to Advaniji and then they’ll take a decision.”
Earlier, party spokesperson Balbir Punj and senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi, whose name is doing the rounds as Advani’s replacement, said if the veteran had made up his mind it must be in the interest of the party and that he would not change his decision.
The party’s Lok Sabha tally now reduced to 116 from 138 and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) it leads has won only 159 seats, far below that of the rival United Progressive Alliance’s 262.
On Saturday Advani had offered to step down at the BJP parliamentary board meeting after it became clear that the party had lost the electoral battle. But his party colleagues refused to accept it.
Party sources, however, said there were several contenders already.
“We have to ensure that no disputes break out for that post between the contenders who include Jaswant Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj. We have to avoid internal problems in this situation,” a party leader said.
Sushma Swaraj, who has won the elections from Madhya Pradesh, said: “I can’t think of replacing Advani as BJP leader.”
The knives are out for other senior leaders in the party.
Joshi, trying to analyse the electoral debacle, said the party’s campaign did not percolate to the ground and that more Muslims should have been given tickets in Uttar Pradesh.
“Perhaps the party’s campaigning could not reach the grassroots. Our efforts did not reach the common man,” said the man who had been in charge of preparing the party’s poll manifesto and has a hardline Hindu image.
He told reporters outside his Raisina Road residence here that the party’s ticket distribution in Uttar Pradesh was not proper and “more tickets should have been given to Muslims”.
BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley, who was the overall coordinator for the elections, had been entrusted the charge of Uttar Pradesh.