Advani, Sushma absent at rally; BJP denies rift
The BJP leadership appears concerned over the party’s failure to take advantage of the Congress’ growing unpopularity. Sending a strong message, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani on Friday warned partymen people were beginning to perceive the BJP as a party that could not “fulfill the people’s expectations”.
The last day of the party’s national executive session was overshadowed by reports in sections of the media about Mr Advani and Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj being upset with the party constitution being amended to allow Nitin Gadkari to continue as president for a second consecutive term. Sources claimed that the two leaders deliberately opted out of the evening public rally due to this. Speculation was also rife in New Delhi that a war was raging within the saffron family over the way the BJP was going all out to “appease” Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. The BJP, however, rubbished these claims and clarified that Mr Advani was never scheduled to participate in the rally, while Ms Swaraj cancelled her participation as she had to go to New Delhi to attend a scheduled programme in Ghaziabad early on Saturday morning.
“When the party’s Mumbai unit announced the schedule of the two-day programme four days ago, they specified Mr Advani will not attend the rally. Therefore, it is factually incorrect that he cancelled his participation. Ms Swaraj is scheduled to attend a programme in Ghaziabad on Saturday morning. It would have been taxing for her to attend the rally in Mumbai tonight, then go to Delhi and attend the programme in Ghaziabad next morning. Therefore she decided to skip the rally,” BJP general secretary Ravishankar Prasad said.
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