Upset with Narendra Modi, LK Advani triggers implosion in BJP

AHMEDABAD: Senior BJP leaders who met L K Advani, after his return to New Delhi from the party's national executive meet in Mumbai, have found him extremely upset over Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's conduct.

While the BJP veteran may have vented his anger on other issues on his latest blog, he is learnt to have told senior colleagues that he tried unsuccessfully to stop Nitin Gadkari from succumbing to Modi's pressure on the Sanjay Joshi issue.

He felt he was not given "due respect" at the Mumbai meet.

Instead of discussing important issues, he felt, the executive members speculated on whether Modi would attend the meeting or not.

Significantly, Advani left the venue immediately after Modi finally arrived at the executive, amid orchestrated chants of Dekho dekho kaun aya, Gujarat ka sher aya'. Also, he skipped the public meeting the next day.

Advani has told close aides that the personality cult that Modi was trying to impose on the BJP was harmful for the organisation.

He is upset that Gadkari is now happy playing second fiddle to Modi — which was evident from his denial of permission to Joshi to travel through Gujarat by train and his handing over of a memorandum to the President against the Gujarat governor.

Advani has been upset with Modi since September 2011 when the CM sat over his proposal to start a Rathyatra against corruption from Gujarat, preferably from Porbandar or Karamsad — the birth places of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, respectively. Instead, he chose to launch the programme from Bihar.