Advani in a bind over infighting

Calls meeting to douse raging fights

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief LK Advani spent most of his birthday today pondering his next move to keep his team together and the answer he came up with is to hold a meeting of party leaders on "the question of Madhya Pradesh" tomorrow.

In fact, the fracas over the MP state unit chief between general secretaries Uma Bharti, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and MP Sumitra Mahajan has provided a convenient excuse for the divide between the party to come to the fore.

According to sources, Bharti is pushing for Prahlad Patel to be made MP party unit chief as Kailash Joshi's term is going to end soon. Chauhan, an OBC leader like Patel, is the party favourite. In this situation, Mahajan is pushing herself as a compromise candidate.

While this fight rages on, BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi went public with his criticism of Bharti's "indiscipline". Some leaders say the attack was directed more at former Union Minister Shahnawaz Hussain, Bharti's protege and the other token Muslim in the BJP.

Another fight, which is raging on in the sidelines, is the barely veiled rivalry between Pramod Mahajan and Arun Jaitley. While the Bharti camp spread the message that it was Mahajan's inclusion in Advani's team that made Bharti to opt out, Mahajan's supporters believe the entire rumour was Jaitley's doing. To Jaitley's credit, he tried valiantly to scotch the rumour, but to no avail.

Bharti's proximity to the Rashtriya Swaymsewak Sangh (RSS) has also given rise to another rivalry""between the BJP and the VHP.

The VHP is apparently upset that Bharti and Murli Manohar Joshi are not being "treated with adequate respect" in the new dispensation, and that the "champions of the Ram temple" were being neglected.

Tomorrow's meeting is being held a day before the first meeting of the new BJP national team, sources say, in order to contain the damage done by Bharti's remarks.

"The thinking is that if Bharti has any objections to the decision on Madhya Pradesh, it would be contained before all the office-bearers met on November 10," said a senior BJP leader.

It seems Advani may need more than birthday wishes to bring his house in order before the winter session of Parliament.

Meanwhile, conceding to Bharti's wish, the BJP gave its seal of approval for her supporter US Sharma as the party's nominee for the Indore mayoral election, ending a five-day drama marred by serious bickering within the party over the choice.

"Party's state election committee, at an emergency meeting today, voted that Sharma would remain the party candidate for the post of mayor for Indore in the coming elections," Kailash Joshi said.