Modi meets Advani to get backing for new role

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi gestures to media representatives as he arrives at the residence of Advani in New Delhi.

Agencies/New Delhi

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi yesterday met L K Advani to get the Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch’s backing for his new role as head of the party’s campaign committee, an elevation that has split the opposition alliance.

Modi also visited ailing former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and met senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi. All three - Advani, Vajpayee and Joshi - have been presidents of the BJP.

A source close to Advani described the meeting as “good” and said it ended “on a positive note.” But there was no official word on the meeting.

Party sources said Modi reportedly discussed the recent political developments including the split in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The Janata Dal-United quit the NDA following Modi’s elevation. The JD-U also dumped the BJP from the coalition government in Bihar.

Modi’s meeting with Advani, 85, was the first since the former deputy prime minister stunned the BJP by resigning from party posts after accusing most of its leaders of pursuing personal agenda.

He made the charge on May 10, a day after Modi was elected in Goa as the election campaign chief despite reservations from Advani.

Advani relented and took back his resignation following the intervention of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

According to BJP sources, Modi is understood to have told Advani that the veteran leader remained the patriarch of the BJP and expressed optimism about the party’s performance in the 2014 general election.

Modi yesterday spent about an hour at the residence of Vajpayee.

The Gujarat chief minister is likely to be tapped as the candidate for the prime minister’s post should his party win elections.

Modi has taken pains to paint himself as a pro-business reformist who can revive the fortunes of the world’s largest democracy.

But he remains a divisive figure nationally after being accused of doing little to stop religious riots in his state in 2002 in which some 2,000 people - mainly Muslims - were killed.

Also yesterday, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) refuted a media report that Modi would visit the disputed Ram Janma Bhoomi site in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya town later this month.

“I have been quoted as commenting on the visit of Narendra Modi. But I am hereby officially refuting any such comment being attributed to me,” Sharad Sharma, regional media in charge of the VHP in Ayodhya, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said a “civil war” was raging in the BJP.

“What is happening in the BJP is their internal matter. It is a civil war situation playing out like reality television,” Tewari said.

However, BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu denied that the NDA has weakened with the pullout of the JD-U and predicted a re-alignment of political forces before and after the next Lok Sabha election.

He hoped that political parties opposed to the Congress would join hands with the BJP.

“There was a similar situation earlier. When elections came close and elections were over, 23 parties joined hands with us. Today the BJP may cross 200 (seats in Lok Sabha). In that case, you will see which parties join us,” he said.

“I don’t want to take names but the parties which are opposed to the Congress will support the BJP,” he said.