Elections 2014: Narendra Modi camp wary of LK Advani challenge
A section of party leaders accuses BJP stalwart of trying to spoil Modi party with his ‘tantrums’
New Delhi: Yet again, old BJP warhorse L.K. Advani’s tantrums over the choice of his Lok Sabha seat has upset the leadership. Though the crisis seems to have blown over now, Mr Advani’s “relentless emotional outbreaks” appear to have “thoroughly exasperated” the saffron brass. A section even accused Mr Advani of “trying to spoil the Modi party”.
These leaders feel Mr Advani’s moves to challenge the leadership, particularly PM candidate Narendra Modi, is sending a wrong signal to the electorate and giving the party’s rivals a handle to talk about chinks in the BJP. Some leaders went to the extent of accusing Mr Advani of leading the so-called “160 Club” in the party. Top feminist activist and staunch Mr Modi backer Madhu Kishwar had accused a clique of party leaders of trying to subvert the Gujarat CM’s prospects.
She even identified the saboteurs as the “160 Club”, a reference to the theory doing the rounds that Mr Modi could become PM only if the BJP could win at least 180-200 Lok Sabha seats; and that any lesser score would open up the prospect for another saffron leader, who could pull in post-poll allies, to take the top job.
While Ms Kishwar had trained her guns at one of Mr Modi’s key supporters, Arun Jaitley, some believe she had “got her facts wrong”, and instead it “should have been the Advani-Sushma duo”.
While Mr Advani seemed happy to have been able to choose his own seat, with the advent of the Modi-led generation next in the party, the process of isolating the old guard seems to have got under way.