In a replay of the BJP’s Goa conclave family drama, which anointed Narendra Modi as the party’s election campaign chief three months ago, consensus on Thursday again eluded the party over the announcement of the Gujarat Chief Minister as BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.
Bringing to fore the sharp differences among the leadership, voices grew louder to sidestep the approval of the BJP’s parliamentary board, the party’s highest decision making body, to declare Modi as the PM candidate by Friday or latest by Monday.
However, to avoid an embarrassing repeat of party patriarch L K Advani resigning from all party posts after Modi’s elevation as the election campaign chief, BJP President Rajnath Singh was locked in hectic parleys to get the dissenting trio of Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi on board for Modi’s candidature. While Advani continued to maintain his opposition to the early declaration of Modi’s endorsement as the PM candidate, Singh reached out to Swaraj during a 45-minute late evening meeting, which reportedly ended without any breakthrough. She is learnt to have said that the parliamentary board should discuss the issue first.
According to a late night agency report, the board will meet on Friday at 5 pm during which a decision on Modi could be announced. Advani, meanwhile, was approached by senior leaders Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar who also met Swaraj at her residence later. In what is believed to be a glimmer of hope in breaking the deadlock, Joshi has agreed to bow to the majority decision after a meeting with the party chief, sources said.
Rajnath Singh’s bid to put up a united front proved futile with leaders in the Advani and Modi camps launching attacks on the party stalwarts on mirco-blogging site Twitter.
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