JOSHI –ADVANI TUSSLE BACK IN VIEW

By M Rama Rao/ May 3, 2007
New Delhi: The Joshi- Advani tussle for the top honours in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has resurfaced with the party president Rajnath Singh declaring that Mr Advani would be the natural choice for prime ministership after Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The Rajnath statement made during the course of his electioneering in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday came in the wake of Mr Vajpayee conveying to the RSS mouth piece, ‘Panchjanya’, his ‘desire’ to ‘retire’ from active politics.

Dr Murali Manohar Joshi, who always subscribes to the theory of ‘triumvirate’ (Vajpayee, Advani and Joshi) as opposed to the two-leader theory (Vajpayee and Advani) of Advani acolytes, did not hide his objection to the Rajnath speak when media persons met him.

“It's Rajnath Singh's statement, not mine. I do not comment on the party president's statement”, the former Allahabad professor, whose ambitions of a second term as BJP president were thwarted by Advani loyalists, remarked.

Political observers are surprised at the re-surfacing of Advani-Joshi duel at this point of time. It could have been prompted as much by media speculation as by the talk about polarisation of political parties after the UP verdict. But observers point out that the party ‘in waiting’ for governance of the country has miscued its ‘duel’ since the latest exit poll projections have pushed the BJP from the second place to the third after BSP and SP in the UP sweepstakes.

Joshi’s differences with Advani and his acolytes are public knowledge in the BJP circles. He appears to enjoy the RSS backing in taking on the erstwhile strongman of the party. And he doesn’t hide the fact either.

Advani camp is, however, is happy with the Rajnath statement. For instance, former president, Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu, seen as close to Advani, has endorsed Mr. Rajnath’s comment on Advani as the next in line for prime minister’s post after Mr Vajpayee. Naidu is credited with coining the phrases, Vikas Purush (Vajpayee) and Lauhu Purush (Advani).

The Joshi camp has never hidden its ‘opposition’ to Advani’s succession plan. At the BJP national executive meeting held in Lucknow four months back, Dr Murali Manohar Joshi was very caustic in his comments on who after Vajpayee question.

“There is no dearth of leaders. Ours is a cadre based party”, he had said then amidst reports that Advani was keen to be the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate.
Dr Murali Manohar Joshi’s present pre-occupation, is a campaign to protect the ‘Ram Sethu’, the bridge Lord Hanuman believed to have built to Lanka during the Ramayana period. Though Sethu doesn’t exist at present, Parivar contends that it was an undersea bridge and argues that construction of Sethu Samudram canal would damage the ‘Ram Sethu’.

Answering a question, the former HRD Minister said, he has no plans to take out a ‘Rath Yatra’ over the Sethu issue. Party circles close to him however claim that Dr Joshi wants to take out a Sethu Rath Yatra like Advani's Ayodhya yatra.

If he goes ahead with the mission, it would be his second ‘Rath Yatra’. His first Yatra for national integration to Srinagar in 1990s with Narendra Modi as yatra manager ended in fiasco.