Rajnath fails to placate Advani

New Delhi: All efforts of BJP President Rajnath Singh to convince party patriarch and NDA Working Chairman L K Advani failed on Wednesday, as the latter refused to budge from his stand on naming Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate. Rajnath Singh is at present being pressurized by Modi and his supporters to declare him as the PM candidate, which, they feel, would help in creating a wave in favour of the party.

Modi’s supporters in the party, right from M Venkaiah Naidu to Suddhanshu Trivedi, are busy singing paeans for him, drawing comparisons between him and the Congress undeclared Prime Ministerial candidate Rahul Gandhi.

The party feels that anointing Modi ahead of the Assembly elections will directly place him in front of Rahul Gandhi and it will be for the people to judge between the two contenders, who are vying for the topmost post of the country.

Rajnath also spoke to Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj.

“Where is the hurry?” is the counter-question, put forth by Advani and his camp that includes Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and others. According to them, Modi would have enough time ahead of Lok Sabha polls, slated for next year in May, to confront Rahul Gandhi on various issues. To declare him as the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate ahead of the Assembly elections, would be unfair to the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, specially, who are all set to scoring a hat-trick in the Assembly elections. Interestingly, while Advani is keen that both Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh should also get laurels like Modi by winning the elections three times in a row in his State, Modi is keen to take all the credit himself.

Backed by the RSS, which has openly come in support of Modi as BJP Prime Ministerial face, Rajnath Singh is busy placating his detractors, particularly Advani. While there is pressure on Rajnath Singh to make the announcement unilaterally, he is walking the extra mile to build consensus. For Rajnath Singh time is running out, as the announcement has to be made before September 19, when the pitru-paksha, the inauspicious period, begins.

“No announcement would be made during that period,” informed BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, who remained non-committal on Modi’s anointment. While there is still more than a week’s time to declare Modi’s candidature, the bigger challenge for Rajnath Singh is to convince Advani. It may be recalled that even earlier, Advani had opposed Modi’s elevation, when his name was being considered to head the BJP Campaign Committee. It was after the intervention of RSS that he was finally forced to fall in line.The same scenario is being repeated now, when Modi is set to be declared as the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate.

Only when he succeeds in bringing the BJP patriarch on board, the BJP President would like to convene the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting. Making the announcement unanimously would add feather in his cap that may eventually help him in his career later. Rajnath Singh, who is himself a shrewd politician, would prefer to take along all the senior leaders along with him, instead of just pleasing Modi. The RSS has backed Modi as BJP Prime Ministerial face, but left the timing on his declaration is to be decided by the BJP.