New Delhi, August 28: With Advani boxed into a corner by his former colleagues, all eyes and ears would be on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat as he addresses his first press conference here on Friday.
The deeply divided party and its disgruntled cadre are clearly looking at Bhagwat for some sort of a roadmap to pull the party out of the current mess.
Bhagwat is also expected to meet LK Advani today.
Indications that the RSS would be playing a key role in salvaging the party came yesterday with BJP president Rajnath Singh and senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi holding separate meetings with Bhagwat at the RSS headquarters.
However, going by Bhagwat’s previous statements, it is clear that the RSS wants to bring about a change in leadership of the party, but it does not want to be seen as controlling the decision making in the BJP.
Bhagwat had, just days before BJP’s chintan baithak in Shimla, said in clear terms that the party lacks discipline and is in need of a “younger leadership”.
But refusing to take the cue, Rajnath Singh had, post-chintan baithak, asserted that Advani would continue as the tallest leader in the party.
In fact, after Jaswant Singh’s expulsion — over the Jinnah book controversy — the BJP had passed a resolution that LK Advani would continue as the parliamentary party leader for the next five years.
But things have changed post the series of expulsions and desertions. Undoubtedly, Advani and Rajnath are now on a sticky wicket and are finding it difficult to hold on to their turf.
Things turned for the worse with Arun Shourie launching a scathing attack on the leadership and calling for the RSS to take over the party.
However, despite the open attack on the party leadership, the party top brass has been reluctant on taking action against him, given his call for a greater role of the RSS in the party affairs.
But, whether the ideological fountainhead of the saffron movement would be able to rescue the party remains to be seen.
–Agencies