BJP for induction of only Narendra Modi in the Parliamentary Board in the first phase

NEW DELHI: LK Advani may have struck a discordant note on Sunday by delinking himself from the groundswell in BJP favouring Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, but the party leadership is determined to send out a clear signal that the leadership tussle has ended in BJP.

A BJP leader said this would be clear when Rajnath Singh announces the new parliamentary board, the party’s top decisionmaking body. Although there is a proposal to include Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, along with Modi in the panel, the leadership is veering round the view that only Modi should be included in the first phase of expansion. “Shivraj Singh will be brought in at a later stage,” said a senior leader who did not wish to be identified.

Advani and a small group of senior leaders have been attempting to suggest parity among chief ministers. In their speeches at the national council meeting, these leaders had dealt at length on the performance of the Chauhan government.

Advani had also said Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj had qualities of former PM AB Vajpayee. “Sushma gives me the same complex that Vajpayee used to give me. I tell Sushma that you create this complex in me…She has explained everything so eloquently. She has even analysed why we lost in some states, where there was a hat-trick, where there is likely to be hat-trick and where we could not win,” Advani had said at the meeting. He also claimed that a regime change at the Centre was dependent on BJP’s ability to add new allies to NDA. This is seen as aimed at reopening a debate on Modi’s acceptability in the coalition.

“It is now clear as daylight that un-aligned political parties will not gravitate to any alliance before the election,” said the BJP leader quoted earlier.

The Sangh leadership is determined to end jostling at the top in BJP. Party president Rajnath Singh, who did not have a smooth tenure when he was president three years ago, has been more accommodative this time.