The Hindu : Venkaiah Naidu, a frontrunner

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 29, 2002

National

National

Venkaiah Naidu, a frontrunner

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, JUNE 28.The Bharatiya Janata Party president, Jana Krishnamurthi, has apparently indicated to the Prime Minister his willingness to join the Government, and at a meeting here today with the Home Minister, L.K. Advani, in command, it was apparently decided to make wholesale changes in the party organisation.

Mr. Krishnamurthi himself hinted at this before leaving for Chennai. He said: "The Prime Minister has asked me to consider joining the Government...there is the tradition that we never say `no' to our leader...he has asked me to join the Government to strengthen it.''

As of now, the Rural Development Minister, Venkaiah Naidu, has emerged as the front-runner for the top party post as he was the "most acceptable'' to the `big two' — Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Mr. Advani. However, the former party president, Kushabhau Thakre, cautioned: "the final decision on who would be the next party president will be taken only tomorrow, when the Prime Minister is back in the capital.''

Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh, all senior to Mr. Naidu, are also contenders for the top party job. But it seems that Mr. Mahajan and Ms. Swaraj do not find favour with the `big two.' Party sources said that keeping all factors in mind — Mr. Mahajan is seen as a good manager and Ms. Swaraj as the perfect political counterfoil to the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and Mr. Singh belongs to the Hindi heartland — the final decision would be taken tomorrow and "things could change in a day.''

At a two-hour long meeting this afternoon where Mr. Advani, Mr. Krishnamurthi, Mr. Thakre, and the general secretary, Sanjay Joshi, were present the "new look'' party structure was all but decided. Final touches are to be given tomorrow at a meeting to be chaired by the Prime Minister. Meetings also took place at various other levels and the BJP leadership also kept the RSS leaders informed. Party sources said that as many as four of the five general secretaries could be changed — barring Sanjay Joshi. There is the expectation that the Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, will also be asked to work for the party. And speculation has grown that Ms. Swaraj and Mr. Naidu are both set to join the party organisation. There are also reports that most of the `decorative' vice-presidents in the party will also have to go.

Simultaneously, plans are afoot to ask several Ministers to work as party presidents of State units to prepare them for polls next year. The names of Sports Minister, Uma Bharti, is being mentioned for Madhya Pradesh, and that of Minister of State, Vasundhara Raje, for Rajasthan. Mr. Advani has already asked Ms. Bharti and her initial reaction was a "no".

However, it seems that this time Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani may be firm and expect everyone to take up any new assignment, whether in party or Government.

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