JUNE 11- Several party leaders on Monday huddled BJP veteran L.K. Advani’s residence to persuade him to withdraw his resignation from various party posts even as BJP president Rajnath Singh refused to accept Advani’s resignation.
Minutes after Advani handed over his resignation to Rajnath, the latter replied to his resignation letter stating that he was rejecting it.
Party leaders Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar were among those at Advani’s residence.
Ramlal, the BJP’s organising secretary, was also at Advani’s house.
“Surprise” at the BJP patriarch’s decision, Sushma Swaraj said she was confident of convincing Advani to take back his resignation.
In another development, Narendra Modi called L.K. Advani over phone and appealed to him to withdraw his resignation.
“Had a detailed conversation with Advani ji on phone. Urged him to change his decision. I hope he will not disappoint lakhs of Karyakartas,” tweeted Narendra Modi.
Meanwhile, Rajnath Singh spoke to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat over Advani’s decision to resign from various BJP posts.
The Sangh sources said that the RSS chief told Rajnath Singh “to mollify Advani” and “not to backtrack on Modi”.
Apparently upset over the elevation of his one-time protege – Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi – as election campaign committee chief, the 85-year-old founder member of the BJP resigned from the Parliamentary Board, National Executive and the Election Committee.
Advani, however, stated that he would continued to be a primary member of the party. He also retained the post of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) chairman.
Earlier in the day, the BJP chief visited the party patriarch at the latter’s residence. In his hour-long meeting, Rajnath failed to convince Advani.
Meanwhile, reacting to Advani’s decision, JD-U chief Sharad Yadav described the development as a sad one which would adversely impact the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
“It is sad… not good for NDA’s health,” Yadav said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) are constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of parties that projected a united front in the last two general elections of 2004 and 2009.
Yadav is the convenor of the National Democratic Alliance.
The JD-U and the BJP run a coalition government in Bihar.
In his resignation, Advani said, “I am finding it difficult to reconcile either with the current functioning of the party, or the direction in which it is going. I no longer have the feeling that this is the same idealistic party created by Dr Mookerji, Deen Dayalji, Nanaji and Vajpayeeji whose sole concern was the country and its people. Most leaders of ours are now concerned just with their personal agendas.”
The pointed reference was to the elevation of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi at the Goa National Executive that concluded on Saturday.
The rank and file of the party had sought the Modi elevation. The senior leader had not made it to Goa which analysts had attributed to his unhappiness at the imminent anointing of Modi.
Ahead of the National Executive, Goa CM Manohar Parrikar had signaled for Advani to give up his opposition to Modi. In an interview, Parrikar had said politicians aged above 65 should introspect if they should retire. He said leaders aged more than 65 lose firm decision-making abilities.
A few weeks ago, the party had expelled senior advocate Ram Jethmalani for six years. Jethmalani had time and again wanted the party to declare Modi as its prime ministerial nominee.
