Advani to sit in BJP office

The central office of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Ashoka Road has once again become the centre of the party's activity after its defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

Former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani announced that he was going to be more regular at the party office and would be present at least two days in a week at the venue.

Wednesday saw Advani attend "office" for a couple of hours, he met party office-bearers including party chief M Venkaiah Naidu.

Advani has been allotted the room previously occupied by general secretary Pramod Mahajan, who will move into organisation general secretary Sanjay Joshi's room.

Joshi has been shifted to former treasurer Ram Das Agarwal's room. "Even when we were in the government, the party chief used to consult me frequently on organisational matters, now the interaction will be more," he said.

With this, the party is signalling that it is serious about the "return to basics" credo that they espoused during the Mumbai meet. "We failed to nurse our basic constituency of cadre, the Sangh Parivar and committed voters," said Advani.

"We have to renew our commitment to them," he added. "Even if an MP does good work in his constituency, he should take the time to move around in the constituency," Advani said.

He said the party MP's failure to do so was responsible for the defeat of 90 sitting MP.

Party sources confirmed that although the BJP was clear that it wanted to boycott the Railway Budget presentation by Laloo Prasad Yadav, they would wait till the meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), likely on July 4 or 5, before devising the strategy.

The party is also contemplating axing UP party unit chief Vinay Katiyar. According to sources, the party considers him a lightweight and responsible for the BJP's performance in the state. The party is looking at a more "experienced" leader to take on the responsibility.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi met the party president as did Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh. Both meetings were described as routine.