Captial Movement

Advani hotfooted it to the RSS HQ yesterday

A day after the Rastriya Swayamsewak (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat pill for the BJP's resurrection, the saffron party topmost leader were noticed running helter-skelter to put the party in order as per the firman from Keshav Kunj, the Delhi headquarter of the RSS. After Bhagwat visited senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi at his home for a luncheon meeting, L K Advani went to the RSS headquarter at Jhandewalan. Bhagwat, who had entered Joshi's place at Raisina Road from the front gate, left the house by the rear no one knows why.



"Advani reached Jhandewalan at 2.55 pm and left at 4.40 pm. All top RSS leaders were there Bhagwat, Suresh Soni, Madan Das Devi and Dattatrya Hoswale," said an eyewitness at the Sangh office. Advani didn't talk to media about the meeting.

About an hour after Advani returned from RSS headquarters, BJP's deputy leader in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj came to his residence at 30, Prithviraj Road, for the second consecutive day.

It was not clear whether Advani had called Swaraj or not. A day before, on Friday night, Swaraj had met Advani at his place along with Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar.

While Swaraj was active on Day-2, the three other leaders had no movement and public appearance. Unlike Friday, no official statement was made.u00a0u00a0

BJP president Rajnath Singh came to BJP headquarters and met people. "Singh was in the party office for almost two hours and met people who had taken a prior appointment," said an official. Singh was at home after that, at 38, Ashoka Road, watching we heard news channels. Singh did not meet senior party or Sangh leaders on Saturday.

Another disgruntled leader, former chief minister of Uttarakhand, BC Khanduri also visited the RSS office and met Sangh leaders. "Khanduri is in the capital and registering his protest against party president Rajnath Singh, blaming him for his removal from the chair of chief minister of Uttarakhand," said a minister of Uttarakhand.u00a0

No other senior leaders came to party office except party spokesperson Prakash Javedkar, who addressed the media in the afternoon.

According to party sources, no discussion has taken place in these last two-three days about party's succession plan. "It is the sheer desperation of few senior BJP leaders, who are trying to project themselves for the top key posts in the party. No such discussion will be held before the Maharastra Assembly election," said a source. "It is certain that a new president will be chosen as the tenure of Rajnath Singh will be over in December. A new face will replace him but there won't be any change before the completion of his tenure. And the names floating in the media are mere media prediction, tipped by some senior disgruntled leaders," said a senior party leader, requesting anonymity.