BJP veteran leader lK Advani on Tuesday ignored a query over the BJP projecting a face for the Chief Minister if the party came back to power after the Assembly elections, due in October-November, in the State.
Advani, who visited Yashwant Sinha in the central jail here nearly two weeks after he was arrested for leading a group that tied up a Jharkhand electricity board official,however, said that the latter might be given to lead the party in the forthcoming Assembly elections.When asked whether the BJP will give Sinha an opportunity to lead the party in next Assembly election of the State, Advani replied,” “I have no doubt that Yashwant can lead the BJP in Jharkhand once he comes out of jail..”
“I have suggested him to come out of the jail in a dignified manner and lead the agitation which he has started in public interest and which has spread across the State,” he told newsmen outside JP Central Jail, after meeting Sinha and other BJP workers, who are behind the bars since June 3.
“Electrification of every village is in our manifesto and here I came to know that the root cause of this agitation was electrification of a village for which Yashwant was trying for last three years. Entire BJP is with Yashwant because it is an issue related with general people who are suffering in most parts of the country nowadays,” he said and exuded confidence that the BJP will form the next Government in the State.
Sinha has refused so far to furnish a bail bond, claiming that he does not want to leave prison till an ongoing power crisis in Jharkhand is resolved.
Sources in the BJP explained that his protest as a pitch to his party for a lead role in Jharkhand. Both Sinha and Advani are seen as part of the old guard that was sidelined within the BJP by Narendra Modi and his A-team during the campaign for the recent national election which ended with a triumphant win for Modi.
Sinha, a former Union Minister, did not run for election this time but managed to get ticket for his son Jayant, who won the Hazaribagh parliamentary seat. Earlier, Advani along with former Chief Minister Arjun Munda arrived here at around 12.30.
