Maverick BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani, who has been largely credited for taking BJP to the position it is today from just 2 seats in 1984 to 120 in 1991and found himself in the wilderness in his twilight years, has finally given up the fight and resigned to the murky politicking of some rootless leaders’ charade and the perfidy by his own protégé Narendra Modi and the RSS.
The impact of the development is that Modi will find his going tough and reaching his life-time ambition of prime ministership even tougher as a piqued Advani can definitely split BJP votes. In fact BJP should thank him if the 85-year-old does not do an encore of Yeddiyurappa in Karnataka last month.Following the BJP leadership, nope the party following the RSS diktat on Sunday and anointed Modi as the chairman of the party’s election committee, which is an endorsement of his larger political legitimacy to seek a berth at the 7 Race Course Road, the senior most leader Advani quit from all the party positions, putting the party in utter disarray and exposing deep rifts in the party.The infighting is not unknown to BJP but in fact it has been crippled by it among leaders, with several, including Advani, harbouring ambitions to become the next prime minister.But the current power struggle in the saffron party is big relief for the scam-ridden Congress and may even be able to win the polls for a record third time.
"For some time I have been finding it difficult to reconcile either with the current functioning of the party, or the direction in which it is going," a greatly disturbed Advani wrote in a strongly worded resignation letter addressed to the party president Rajnath Singh, who till yesterday night did not accept the resignation. Advani rued that the BJP is no longer the "same idealistic party" created by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Deendayal Upadhyaya, Nanaji Deshmukh and Vajpayee.The dramatic development prompted leaders to rush to Advani's residence in a bid to pacify him but he showed no signs of relenting. Advani turned down the pleas of senior leaders including Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar to withdraw the resignation. The party chief was also in a huddle with leaders including Arun Jaitley on how to tackle the crisis that has exposed the rift in the party wide open.
In the one-page resignation, Advani said, "For some time “I have been finding it difficult to reconcile either with the current functioning of the party, or the direction in which it is going. Most leaders of ours are now concerned just with their personal agendas," Advani said further. Advani had skipped the three-day deliberations of the party in Goa over the weekend citing health reasons. This was the first time Advani had stayed away from the National Executive and the office bearers' meeting.Important BJP ally JD-U, already not enthused by Modi's elevation, received with surprise Advani's decision and indicated that it will have to review its position in the wake of these developments. After finding fault with the way the party is being run now, he concluded the letter saying, "I have decided to resign from the three main fora of the party, namely, the National Executive, the Parliamentary Board and the Election Committee. This may be regarded as my resignation letter," he said.
In the evening, Modi tweeted "Had a detailed conversation with Advani on phone. Urged him to change his decision. I hope he will not disappoint lakhs of Karyakartas." Significantly, Advani continues to be chairman of the BJP parliamentary party and working chairman of NDA. This is Advani’s third resignation from the party positions. Advani, a founder member of BJP, had first resigned as party president on June 7, 2005 following widespread criticism from the RSS and right wing outfits over his remarks praising Jinnah during his six-day visit to Pakistan. Advani had described Jinnah as a "secular" leader. Advani, whose trip to Pakistan was seen as an attempt to reposition himself politically and to shed the hardline tag and recast himself as a moderate more palatable to a wider electorate, had spoken of Jinnah's "forceful espousal of a secular state in which every citizen would be free to practice his own religion".
He had described Jinnah as one of the "very few who actually create history". Advani, however, withdrew his resignation from the party chief's post after intense parleys, ending a four-day long leadership crisis in the opposition party.Despite the resolution of the crisis, ties remained strained between Advani and the RSS, the party's fountainhead. Less than seven months after he withdrew his resignation, Advani stepped down as party president on December 31, 2005 bringing to an end the controversy triggered by his praise of Jinnah. He was succeeded by the current party president Rajnath Singh. The formal resolution of the crisis in June took place at a meeting of the BJP parliamentary board and central office-bearers to which the BJP chief ministers were also invited.His second resignation came at a press conference, a day after the BJP's silver jubilee national council session concluded in Mumbai. He had denied that he was forced to resign under the pressure from RSS. He said he had acted on his declaration at the Chennai national executive session in September.
