Chennai, August 15: RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat today said he had not issued any “directive” to senior BJP leader L K Advani during their recent meeting to step down as Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
“I met Advaniji recently. We were discussing many things.
But I have not issued any directive on that day,” Bhagawat told reporters here in his first comments after Advani dismissed media reports that the RSS chief had asked him to nominate his successor in their one-to-one meeting.
Maintaining that RSS had “nothing to do” with BJP, the RSS chief said, “BJP is a separate organisation and we don’t direct or operate them at any level. It is a political party and it is also capable of taking its own decision.”
Advani had a luncheon meeting with Bhagawat recently, following which reports said the RSS chief had suggested to him to nominate his successor in the near future.
The BJP veteran had said discussion with Bhagwat centred around BJP’s performance in the just-concluded budget session of Parliament and the current political situation. The party’s Shimla brainstorming session did not figure in it.
“On many issues they have identical views like us. But it does not mean that we have hands on them,” Bhagawat said and declined to comment on queries on the goings-on in BJP.
On BJP’s poor showing in Lok Sabha polls, he said RSS need not necessarily assess BJP’s performance as “it will make its own assessement. A jolt has temporarily destablised them.
Slowly they are regaining their balance. Whatever it is, they have to take care of themselves.
—Agencies