Advani stays, postpones BJP's succession war

NEW DELHI: Wary of a fierce infighting breaking out among its top leaders on the issue of succeeding L K Advani as Leader of the Opposition, BJP on Monday decided to play it safe and persist with status-quo for the moment to ensure a smooth transition at a later stage.

Owning moral responsibility for the party���s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls, Mr Advani had tendered his resignation from the post of Leader of Opposition soon after the electoral verdict. He is said to have remained firm on his move, but former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi, a perennial Advani-baiter, made him reconsider his decision after he threw his hat in the ring, triggering fears of full-scale succession war.

Senior RSS leaders Suresh `Bhaiyyaji��� Joshi, Madan Dass Devi and Suresh Soni, who met the BJP veteran on Sunday, too impressed upon him the need to facilitate a smooth transition, and not take any decision which could create a vacuum at the top.

A meeting of the BJP���s central office-bearers and chief ministers of party-ruled states, which was held here on Monday morning, saw similar sentiments being aired. A conclave of chief ministers of all NDA-governed states which was to follow in the evening was, however, called off as Nitish Kumar (Bihar) and Parkash Singh Badal (Punjab) expressed their inability to make it, citing prior engagement, even though JD(U) sources said that Mr Kumar deliberately opted out to prevent the possibility of sharing the stage with Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi once again.

Mr Joshi���s attempts to grab the post, and the fact that the party was, in any case, gearing up for a leadership change, with Rajnath Singh���s term as BJP president drawing to an end in December, forced the party brass to prevail upon Mr Advani eventually. Aware that it would be extremely difficult for him to seek a second term, given his disastrous track-record, Rajnath Singh is now eyeing the Opposition leader���s post. His project is being aided by a section of the Sangh leadership.

The understanding now is that Mr Advani will relinquish the post at a later stage, to groom his understudy in the interregnum and ensure a hassle-free transition. Among contenders for the post are Sushma Swaraj, Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha, besides Mr Joshi and Rajnath Singh.

Speaking to newspersons after the BJP meeting, the BJP president said that Mr Advani had agreed to continue as leader of the party���s Parliamentary Board. ``Therefore, it is understood that he will also be the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha,������ he said.

���Since the party felt that it needed the leadership and guidance of Advaniji, it requested him to agree to be the leader of the party in the 15th Lok Sabha,������ Mr Rajnath Singh told reporters.

���When Advaniji was informed that the party needed his leadership and guidance to rebuild itself to meet the challenges of the future, as it had suffered a setback in the Lok Sabha elections, he agreed not to persist with his resignation offer,������ he said.