Advani threatens to derail Modi’s PM ambitions
Wants Swaraj to become prime ministerial candidate for upcoming elections
NEW DELHI: Former deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani is encouraging his protégé Sushma Swaraj to project herself as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate for the upcoming general elections.
The idea is to project Swaraj as more acceptable candidate to the secular allies of the party.
This would pitch Swaraj against the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to be named BJP’s prime ministerial candidate soon.
Modi, who earlier this year made a hat-trick of victories in Gujarat, enjoys blessings of both the party chief Rajnath Singh and BJP’s ideological fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Advani faction, however, are not enthused by this prospect.
Advani was projected as the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s prime ministerial candidate in 2009 general elections. While the 85-year-old veteran still has prime ministerial ambitions, realising that the RSS would not approve of it due to their strained ties, he is understood to have encouraged Swaraj to take on Modi.
Haryana deal
A day after Modi attended the reconstituted parliamentary board meeting of BJP on Tuesday and discussed the roadmap for 2014 general elections, Swaraj exerted herself by making two out of turn announcements.
She announced unilaterally that BJP and Janhit Congress would contest 45 seats each in the 90-member Haryana state assembly elections next year and that power would be shared between the two parties on rotation basis with Janhit Congress chief Kuldeep Bishnoi becoming the chief minister for the first two and a half years, followed by state BJP president Ram Bilas Sharma in the top post for the remaining two and a half years.
Later on Wednesday, she said that BJP prime ministerial candidate would only be announced after consultations with other stakeholders in the NDA.
BJP leaders are unhappy with these two announcements. The Haryana deal was not discussed within the party. Moreover, the statement about consultations with NDA allies before naming the prime ministerial candidate is being seen as an act to provoke allies like the Janata Dal-United.
