Advani sees a third front govt in 2014
6 Aug 2012 6:23 AM IST
The Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] senior leader L K Advani has once again chosen to nudge his party leadership, even as the party president Nitin Gadkari held conclave with the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to iron out differences over the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 polls. Advani on Sunday surprised many BJP leaders when he wrote in his blog that there was a possibility a non-Congress, non-BJP person becoming the prime minister after the 2014 General Election.
'A non-Congress, non-BJP Prime Minister heading a government supported by one of these two … [principle] parties is, however, feasible. This has happened in the past also,' wrote Advani in his blog. Though he added a note of caution: 'There has been stability at the centre only when the government has had either a Congress or a BJP Prime Minister.'
The BJP leaders are largely tight-lipped about this comment, but sources in the party feel that it is directed more at the party workers than anything else. They feel that Advani wants the party to realise that it needs to go a long way and work much harder if it wants a favourable result in the 2014 election. 'What Advani is saying through his blog is that if the party does not pull up its socks, then it will have no option and will have to support a non-BJP prime minister,' a senior BJP leader said.
However, observers do not rule out Advani batting for the Bihar chief minister, who had come to his rescue allowing him to launch his anti-black money rath yatra from Bihar. Kumar extended the favour when Advani's one-time protégé Narendra Modi had refused to extend him the same courtesy in Gujarat.
Predicting a major downward slide in the prospects of the Congress, Advani said that this may be the first time when the party may win less than 100 seats. 'Unfortunately, the two governments since 2004, UPA I and UPA II, have both been so badly mismanaged that the current state of anxiety in the ruling establishment is quite understandable,' he wrote.
The opposition parties were quick to dismiss Advani's blog post and said that the BJP leader had conceded defeat before the elections. 'If one is reluctant, how can they win the war,' said the Congress leader Rajiv Shukla. The Samajwadi Party leader Mohan Singh echoed Shukla's views, saying that Advani had accepted defeat.
'A non-Congress, non-BJP Prime Minister heading a government supported by one of these two … [principle] parties is, however, feasible. This has happened in the past also,' wrote Advani in his blog. Though he added a note of caution: 'There has been stability at the centre only when the government has had either a Congress or a BJP Prime Minister.'
The BJP leaders are largely tight-lipped about this comment, but sources in the party feel that it is directed more at the party workers than anything else. They feel that Advani wants the party to realise that it needs to go a long way and work much harder if it wants a favourable result in the 2014 election. 'What Advani is saying through his blog is that if the party does not pull up its socks, then it will have no option and will have to support a non-BJP prime minister,' a senior BJP leader said.
However, observers do not rule out Advani batting for the Bihar chief minister, who had come to his rescue allowing him to launch his anti-black money rath yatra from Bihar. Kumar extended the favour when Advani's one-time protégé Narendra Modi had refused to extend him the same courtesy in Gujarat.
Predicting a major downward slide in the prospects of the Congress, Advani said that this may be the first time when the party may win less than 100 seats. 'Unfortunately, the two governments since 2004, UPA I and UPA II, have both been so badly mismanaged that the current state of anxiety in the ruling establishment is quite understandable,' he wrote.
The opposition parties were quick to dismiss Advani's blog post and said that the BJP leader had conceded defeat before the elections. 'If one is reluctant, how can they win the war,' said the Congress leader Rajiv Shukla. The Samajwadi Party leader Mohan Singh echoed Shukla's views, saying that Advani had accepted defeat.
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