With senior BJP leader L K Advani agreeing to take back his resignation, the gains of the Goa conclave seem to be unspoilt -- at least for now.
Even the Congress leaders had started to rub their hands in glee over divisions in the key opposition party.
On Tuesday, senior BJP leaders made a beeline to Advani’s high security Prithviraj Road house. The leaders were united in their appeal that Advani was too senior a leader to let go.
Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde told reporters that Advani was angry, but also sad. Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, S S Ahluwalia and Ravi Shankar Prasad -- all went to meet Advani.
Sources said it was Sangh ideologue S Gurumurthy, who opened channels of discussions between RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Advani.
It was only after Bhagwat assured Advani and requested him not to resign that the senior BJP leader relented.
The current truce within the party would mean that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi would enjoy unassailable position as the party had refused to even discuss the issue of him stepping aside from the post.
Modi had spoken to Advani on Monday and asked him to withdraw his resignation.
On Tuesday, within a few minutes of Rajnath reading out the statement, Modi tweeted: “I had said yesterday that Advaniji will not disappoint lakhs of Karyakartas. Today, I wholeheartedly welcome his decision!”
The party was also hard-pressed to scotch any rumours of Advani being miffed with the RSS micro-managing the party affairs. Rajnath denied that RSS has issued any such diktat about Modi or Advani’s role.