Veteran BJP veteran L.K. Advani, who has lately been finding it “difficult to reconcile” either with the party’s “current functioning” or the “direction” it was heading to, on Thursday met RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat. Mr Advani had recently resigned from key party posts a day after the BJP leadership named Gujarat CM Narendra Modi head of its poll campaign committee. But he later withdrew his resignation after Mr Bhagwat intervened. This was Mr Advani’s first meeting with Mr Bhagwat after the resignation drama, when he claimed most BJP leaders were “now concerned just with their personal agenda” Mr Advani, upset over Mr Modi’s elevation, wants the BJP to prepare for the 2014 general election under a “collective leadership”. The RSS chief, it is learnt, gave him no assurance in this regard.
After their meeting at the RSS office here that lasted over an hour, the RSS said both had a “detailed and candid” interaction on “various developments in the country” and on the BJP’s role in the broad nationalist movement led by the Sangh. Sources, however, said the recent developments in the BJP and NDA, and the message Mr Modi’s elevation has sent to party workers, were also discussed.
Mr Advani wants the BJP to prepare for the 2014 elections under a “collective leadership”.