SC does a surgical strike on Advani, Joshi's presidential ambitions

But the Supreme Court on Monday observed that the charges of criminal conspiracy against Advani, Joshi and Bharti in a Babri Masjid demolition case were dropped on a technicality. It suggested joint trial of the accused.

Not that Advani and Joshi were ever going to be the first choice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s nominees for the post of the President of India. There is much ice between them that needs to be broken for that to ever take place.

But Advani’s candidature could have found support from regional parties, and NDA allies as a loss in Uttar Pradesh could weaken the PM. There have been reports in Hindi dailies that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is likely to push for Joshi's name.

However, neither Advani nor Joshi, in the light of the Supreme Court’s observations, are likely to find full throated support from such regional parties as the Trinamool Congress, Janata Dal (United) and Biju Janata Dal, all of which are conscious of their secular image.

The BJP-led NDA is currently (approximately) 66,000 votes short of majority in the presidential electoral college. It hopes to bridge the deficit by an improved showing in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and reaching out to regional parties with significant electoral college votes.

A victory in UP would mean smooth sailing for whoever is the PM’s nominee as the NDA candidate. Conversely, an embarrassing loss in UP is likely to throw open the game, and would have offered Advani and Joshi an opportunity to push their cases.

But Modi and party President Amit Shah would have still resisted the move. Modi might have found Advani’s support and managed to keep his job as the Gujarat chief minister after the communal riots in 2002, their equation since then has been extremely cold.

Advani had boycotted the BJP national executive meeting in Goa in June 2013, which had voted for Narendra Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha elections. One of the first moves of the new BJP chief Shah in 2014 was to move out senior leaders like Advani and Joshi from the party’s parliamentary board to the newly constituted ‘margdarshak mandal’, or mentor’s, group. Not a single meeting of the group has been convened in the last three years.

Advani, Joshi and others struck back at Shah after the party’s debacle in Bihar assembly polls in November 2015. But Shah survived and consolidated his position with a victory in Assam in 2016.

This also won’t be the first time that his alleged role in the Babri Masjid demolition will cost Advani a sought after job. Advani’s Rath Yatra of 1990 and the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 contributed to BJP’s rise in the 1990s. It also meant that BJP’s potential allies were unwilling to accept Advani on the prime ministerial chair. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the more acceptable face and was sworn in as the prime minister in 1996 and in 1998.