Jaitley takes on Advani to defend Modi’s turf
5 Jun 2013 12:52 AM GMT
In the run up to the meeting of the National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) beginning from 8 June in Goa, factions have started to position themselves on the issue of leadership. In a day of developments, first the news came that former BJP president Nitin Gadkari has refused to look after the party’s campaign committee for upcoming assembly polls, while later in the day Leader of Opposition, Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, firmly reiterated that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is the most popular leader of the party.
These developments cannot be seen in isolation as the BJP leadership has been in a fire-fighting mode since senior leader LK Advani’s comparison of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan with Narendra Modi. Positioning himself at a distance from his mentor for the first time publicly, Jaitley said, ‘Advani is the guide of the party but at times his views have been self- critical.’ The BJP leader then went on to say that Modi’s popularity among party cadres is self-evident and the Gujarat chief minister has a special place in the BJP’s campaign.
These developments cannot be seen in isolation as the BJP leadership has been in a fire-fighting mode since senior leader LK Advani’s comparison of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan with Narendra Modi. Positioning himself at a distance from his mentor for the first time publicly, Jaitley said, ‘Advani is the guide of the party but at times his views have been self- critical.’ The BJP leader then went on to say that Modi’s popularity among party cadres is self-evident and the Gujarat chief minister has a special place in the BJP’s campaign.
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