National

Advani was de facto president

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, OCT. 18. The crisis facing the Bharatiya Janata Party since 1998 is evident from the fact that in the last six years it has seen four party presidents come and ago, and, of these, three could not complete their tenure. Bangaru Laxman had to leave unceremoniously following a cash-on-camera episode; Jana Krishnamurthy who succeeded him was shunted out as he was not seen to be energetic enough (he was seen to be "too independent" and had taken some decisions without taking the senior leaders, L.K. Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, into confidence); and Venkaiah Naidu quit today without completing his tenure in the wake of the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra elections debacle. Only Kushabhau Thakre completed his two-year tenure (1998 to 2000) but he was denied a second term.

Changing focus

During these years, the party has been seen as moving its focus from `swadeshi' to liberalisation and from Hindutva to development, but it is never quite at ease with its new `avatar' as the harbinger of development and good governance. In fact, even in the midst of the Maharashtra election campaign, the party raked up the issues of Savarkar and the `tiranga yatra' which reportedly became a bone of contention among the top leaders. Some Maharashtra leaders felt that the party was unnecessarily shifting the focus away from `bijli, sadak aur pani' (electricity, roads and water) — the plank of non-development and non-governance taken up by the State unit of the BJP to get the maximum advantage of the anti-incumbency factor against the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party ruling alliance.

There is no doubt at all in the mind of anyone in the Bharatiya Janata Party that for about two decades, since 1986, the party machinery has continued to be in the grip of Mr. Advani, who became the party president once again today for the third time and for the fifth term. The party expects that with Mr. Advani in the saddle, the squabbling among the party's second-generation leaders will end.

Mr. Advani first became party president in early 1986 taking over from the first BJP president, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After two consecutive terms, he relinquished the post to Murli Manohar Joshi in early 1991, but not before he had established himself as the Hindutva leader after his first `yatra' — from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1989. He again took the mantle from Dr. Joshi in 1993 and continued to guide the party from the top position till 1998. In the last six years, there have been other party presidents, but not one of them held sway over the party like Mr. Advani did. In fact, in the two years of the tenure of the outgoing president, Venkaiah Naidu, Mr. Advani continued to be virtually the de facto president with not a single decision being made without his full approval.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh, today made it clear that Mr. Advani would continue to hold his position as the Leader of the Opposition. This will be the first time that both the top positions will be held by one person. When Mr. Advani was the party president earlier, Mr. Vajpayee was the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr. Naidu told reporters that although the party was willing to understand his need to give his family more time — his wife has been ailing — he himself was not willing to keep the top party job knowing that he could not devote his full attention to it.

"Dedicated leadership"

At the meeting of the office-bearers, the party placed on record its appreciation of Mr. Naidu's "energetic and dedicated leadership" and said that during his two years in the top job, he had shown "mobility and ability." Mr. Naidu himself later said that he was "not a mass leader" but an "organiser."

Mr. Naidu announced that while he would complete his tenure as the Rajya Sabha member, he would not contest any election to either House and would not accept any party position.

That was final, he said, thanking the party for having given him every opportunity to serve the party and the people.

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