Image change could pay off

Outwardly, BJP leader LK Advani's resignation from the post of BJP president may seem to have pushed the party deeper into the throes of an internal haemorrhage but the reaction of the parties allied to the BJP in the NDA has shed new light on the issue.

Advani's remarks on Jinnah may appear to have cost him his job as BJP president but it has also succeeded in re-positioning him as a leader capable of guiding the NDA into the next election.

Reactions to Advani's comments from NDA leaders such as Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav confirm that Advani's new- found soft image has gone down well with the BJP's allies.

His resignation from the post of BJP president, yet remaining as the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha point to the fact that Advani has no intention of bowing out of active politics.

For long Advani has been the hawkish face of the BJP, capable of mobilising voters yet not being acceptable to the larger NDA as a prime ministerial candidate.

He has always been overshadowed by the statesmanlike Atal Bihari Vajpayee whose softer image of being "the right man in the wrong party" made him the prime ministerial candidate for the NDA.

Advani's calculation may have been to re-calibrate his image, since at his age, there are very few chances of a second wind. In this, he may have unwittingly emulated Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the praise of whom cost him his present job.

Like Jinnah, Advani, too, had a western style upbringing, studied in English medium and was not particularly keen on worship, yet his identity in politics is that of a hawkish Hindu just as Jinnah used Muslim identity politics.

Some say that Advani's praise of Jinnah may be related to a recanting of old ways that happened with Jinnah as well.

Sources close to Advani say that he is determined not to withdraw his resignation. "He does not need the post, the party needs him," says a close aide.

Advani's re-positioning may have larger consequences for the not just the BJP or the NDA but the next general elections as well, when the BJP contests as a party committed to Hinduism but with yet another "soft faced" leader at the helm.

With Advani reaching the ripe old age of 78, he may well have realised that like Jinnah he, too, has to take his chances.