Pressure is mounting on the BJP leadership to either ask its parliamentary party leader L.K. Advani to refrain from writing on contentious issues in his blog or to get his blog postings screened before they are uploaded on the social networking site.
After his blog posting embarrassed the BJP, sources disclosed, many senior leaders have asked party chief Nitin Gadkari to take up the matter with Mr Advani and ask him to get his postings screened before they are uploaded. Even the RSS shares the view that Mr Advani’s blog postings should be vetted in order to avoid controversies.
If Mr Advani’s latest blog posting, predicting a non-Congress, non-BJP Prime Minister after the 2014 polls, created a political storm, with BJP ally Shiv Sena reacting strongly to his comments and calling them “demoralising”, an earlier blog posting of the veteran BJP leader where he had criticised some of the decisions taken by the BJP chief had left the party red-faced.
Another ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal, said though Mr Advani’s assessment was his personal view, but they could be damaging. However, the JD(U), which is lobbying for Bihar chief minister to be projected as a PM candidate, seemed to be appreciative of Mr Advani’s comments whose leader Shivanand Tiwari said that Mr Advani “understands the pulse of the country’s politics and the trends”. It could be mentioned here that the JD(U) is opposed to any attempts by the BJP to project Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as its PM candidate.
In his latest posting on the possible results of the 2014 general polls, Mr Advani had mentioned that “a non-Congress, non-BJP Prime Minister heading a government supported by one of these two principal parties is feasible. This has happened in the past also.”
Terming the blog contents as “demoralising,” Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said instead of preparing for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP seems to be “afflicted with an illness” or “beset with internal squabbles?”
“If Advani has any doubts, he can come to me and I will give him a dose of morale and strength,” Mr Thackeray said in an editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana. “This is like a general saying before a war that there is no guarantee on the outcome, and demoralising the entire Army,” he has further mentioned. He also said that the next PM should be from the NDA and that decision could be taken after polls are over.
RSS ideologue M.G. Vaidya said it was premature to make a prediction at this stage.