Will LK Advani address BJP's national executive meet?

NEW DELHI: With the party's national executive beginning in Bengaluru on Friday, the BJP leadership is not clear whether veteran L K Advani will address the meeting this time.

Except for the national executive in Goa in June 2013, where Narendra Modi was declared the BJP's national campaign chief for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections which Advani skipped, the veteran who founded BJP along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1980 has attended and addressed all national executive meetings of the party.

As a party elder along with Vajpayee, Advani's address to the national executive as the "marg darshak" (guide) has almost been a routine ritual that has been traditionally followed before the meeting wraps up.

However, this time, when party general secretary (organization) Ramlal met Advani at his residence a few days ago to discuss his address before finalizing the programme for the two-day meeting, the senior leader seemed reluctant to speak. According to party sources, he told Ramlal that he was "not too keen" to deliver an address this time. Advani will reach Bengaluru on Thursday evening to attend the two-day national executive.

Advani, who is a member of the "marg darshak committee" set up by the BJP leadership under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah for veterans in the party, is also learnt to have mentioned to Ramlal that the last Delhi elections was the first occasion in his long political life when he did not participate in the poll campaign.

While it is not clear whether Advani will speak at the Bengaluru meet, the leadership is expecting him to address the party's top decision making body as the BJP's senior-most member.