The BJP’s so-called crusade against the Congress seemed to have hit a major hurdle as the outfit is plagued with trouble from within. If the party high command was questioned by its own MPs for its “cooperation “with Congress over contentious legislations, like Food Security Bill and Land Acquisition Bill, top leaders, including L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, chief ministers Raman Singh and Shivraj Singh Chauhan have come out against declaring Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as party’s prime ministerial candidate before the forthcoming Assembly elections in five states.
With DG Vanzara, the IPS officer accused of fake encounters in Gujarat, coming out against the Modi administration, the Advani camp wants all possible moves to project Mr Modi be put on hold. However, the RSS seemed to be adamant in declaring Mr Modi as PM candidate after the Monsoon Session gets over.
Sources disclosed senior RSS leader Bhaiyya Joshi, who met Mr Advani and Ms Swaraj on Sunday was told that the chief ministers of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are not in favour of BJP declaring Mr Modi’s name before the polls as opposition would turn the BJP’s main poll planks of good governance and development to “secularism vs communalism.” Mr Modi is considered as a polarising figure by many within the party, including Mr Advani. The RSS is trying hard to bring everyone on board, including sangh parivar affiliates, before announcing the PM candidate. RSS, VHP, BJP top brass are also expected to meet later this week to discuss the issue. Sources said the RSS is now being questioned from its own cadre on the ongoing battle within the BJP on the PM candidate issue and whether or not Mr Modi will be the PM candidate. There is a growing demand from the sangh cadre to announce Mr Modi as the PM candidate at the earliest.
In the wake of a sting operation claiming to “expose” a plan by senior BJP leaders to save the Mr Modi’s key aide Amit Shah in Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter case, some BJP leaders were heard terming it as a “prelude” of Opposition’s ammunition against Mr Modi. Denying any rift within the BJP over the PM candidate issue, party chief Rajnath Singh, who was in Pune, said, “It is Congress which presents a divided house and not BJP, which has never seen a vertical split.” Meanwhile, at the BJP’s parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday, some of its MPs asked party top brass why was the party “cooperating” with the Congress when the ruling party is “doing nothing” to allay its concerns on important issues raised by it in Parliament.