Last night, Rajnath Singh wasn’t the only one resurrected in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); it was also the resurrection of L K Advani, who earlier stared at redundancy, both in the party and the Sangh Parivar.
Senior BJP leaders say news of an Income Tax (I-T) Department survey trickled in at about noon yesterday (supporters of former party president Nitin Gadkari deny an IT raid). At a function in Mumbai where Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP leaders were present, it was Advani who worriedly pointed out how difficult it would be for the BJP to take a moral high ground if the party president was being probed for income tax irregularities.
Also, there was news of former finance minister Yashwant Sinha seeking a set of nomination papers to set himself up as a candidate against Gadkari, if it came down to a contest.
While Advani’s stance was conveyed to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, Suresh Joshi, second-in-command of the RSS, tried to pacify Sinha. However, Sinha pointed out no BJP member of Parliament wanted Gadkari as the party chief. He added the RSS shouldn’t be involved in the election process.
Considering the power dynamics in the Sangh, this was a bizarre situation---it was as if the BJP had revolted against the Sangh. And, the Sangh, the ultimate upholder of moral values, was batting for a man who appeared to have no backing within the BJP, primarily on grounds of integrity. In a sense, even RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat seemed vulnerable to criticism on this account.
Humiliated and forced to grovel since 2005-06, after the RSS had signalled an all-out attack against him for his views on Jinnah, this was Advani’s chance to get even. A subtle message had been conveyed to the Sangh: you wouldn’t succeed in installing a BJP president who didn’t have Advani’s support.
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Caught in the tussle, Nitin Gadkari was left defenceless and friendless. He irritated Advani and angered Narendra Modi by taking directions from the Sangh. Now, the Sangh was advising him to leave the position it had secured for him.
Earlier, Sushma Swaraj had rejected Advani’s endorsement of her for the post of president, as she was already leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Then, the Sangh, which had already guessed all wasn’t well with Gadkari’s renomination, proposed Rajnath Singh for the post. Former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu and Arun Jaitley, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, invited Swaraj and Ram Lal, the party’s general secretary, for a meeting at Arun Jaitley’s residence in central Delhi. Rajnath Singh emerged as the consensus choice.
In preparation, Rajnath Singh had already mended ties with the party’s power centres. It was Rajnath Singh who flagged off Narendra Modi’s Vivekanand Yatra; it was he who carried out the Sangh’s diktat and informed long-time colleague Jaswant Singh he had been expelled for writing a book on Jinnah. Singh’s new position was made sweeter by the fact that when he wasn’t heading the party, the BJP’s performance was less than stellar---not only did the party lose in Uttar Pradesh, it also saw dismal results in a host of other states.
“I have accepted to become BJP president as a responsibility, and not as a post. The situation under which I am getting charge of the party is not a happy one,” was Singh’s first comment.
“The biggest responsibility of Rajnath Singh is to ensure there is no immoral act in the BJP,” Advani said, after the election process was over and the BJP had found its new president.
In the subtle power play between the party and the Sangh, this round definitely went to the BJP.