Appearing fed up with veteran leader L.K. Advani’s repeated attempts to undermine Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, BJP president Rajnath Singh was forced to intervene on Monday and send Mr Advani a signal to “not create unnecessary controversies”, sources said.
Officially, however, the BJP and its president tried to play down the controversy, saying Mr Advani’s remarks had been “wrongly interpreted”.
Sources said Mr Modi also called up the BJP president and expressed “irritation” at the repeated attempts by Mr Advani to cut him to size. The BJP chief had also met Mr Advani on Sunday to tell him that his remarks were not going down well with the party, sources said.
Mr Singh also politely snubbed Mr Advani by asking Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan to issue a clarification on the senior leader’s efforts to “muddy the waters”, the sources said. It was then that Mr Chouhan came out into the open to say “Narendra Modi is my senior, an elder brother... Raman Singh is also senior to me. Leave alone being number one or number two, I am not even at number three.”
It is learnt some BJP functionaries intend to take on Mr Advani when he addresses the party’s forthcoming national executive session in Goa. While Mr Modi has confirmed he will address a party workers’ convention in Goa after the national executive meeting, Mr Advani, sensing trouble, is yet to confirm his participation.
A senior BJP leader said that barring Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar, there are no major leaders “who stand by Mr Advani at this juncture”.
He added that the party was somewhat “amused” that Mr Advani, 86, had “not yet given up his ambition to be in the race for the top post”.
Other leaders felt Mr Advani’s repeated efforts to create a rift were damaging the party’s image and electoral prospects.
It was pointed out that as the clamour for the Gujarat CM to lead the party in the 2014 general election began to gather momentum, Mr Advani “began his sniper attacks”.