Advani still adamant on Narendra Modi as PM candidate

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New Delhi: After getting the RSS nod, the BJP is making last ditch efforts to convince senior party leader L K Advani to support Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as party's PM candidate for the general elections slated for September 14.Party president Rajnath Singh is said to have met Advani, but nothing concrete has emerged from that meeting. It has now been said that not even the date for Parliamentary meet was discussed. Earlier reports said the meet would be held on September 13.Singh has always said that he wants the parliamentary board to unanimously announce the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.The parliamentary board is headed by anti-Modi coterie including Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi.
Advani, who is also a PM aspirant, is reportedly very stubborn on not backing Modi and wants the announcement delayed till November when five states go for Assembly elections.However, it is said the BJP parliamentary meet could be held anytime before September 19. "Since most of the members of the Parliamentary Board have prior engagements and are out of town on some days, Ramlal is trying to find a suitable date before the inauspicious 'Pitripaksh' period begins on September 19 when they are in the capital," one of the members of the panel said.There were reports that September 13 may be a probable date but Murli Manohar Joshi will be away in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, for a party programme.Senior party leaders are ruling out September 15 as a possible date for the Parliamentary Board meeting as Modi is addressing a rally in Rewari, Haryana, on that day while senior leader L.K. Advani will address a public meeting on the same day in Fatehpur Sikri.Meanwhile, RSS is building pressure on Rajnath Singh saying that the announcement must be done at the earliest and that the BJP must come across as a united house.