RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is expected to hold a closed-door meeting with BJP veteran lK Advani during his Delhi visit between June 18 and 19. This would be, perhaps, the first such interaction between the two senior leaders in recent times and could set the stage for new churnings within the BJP in the backdrop of Advani’s resignation episode.
RSS’ second-in-command Suresh Bhaiyaji Joshi, another Bhagwat confidant, has already held a one-on-one with Advani on Wednesday and the BJP veteran is understood to have explained him in detail about the issues that he “broadly mentioned” in his resignation letter to BJP chief Rajnath Singh on Monday. Advani agreed to withdraw his resignation from three top BJP bodies on Tuesday after Bhagwat spoke to him.
“What transpires between Advani and Bhagwat would weigh on the minds of the RSS chief when he and other senior members of the Parivar fountainhead meet in July to review the functioning of all Sangh affiliates,” a senior RSS leader told The Pioneer.
Sangh functionaries are busy holding training camps across the country and once this exercise is over by June 25, executive members of the RSS will have a brainstorming session in Amravati (Maha
rashtra) in July. “Besides other, BJP issues will also come up for discussion at the meet. The issues flagged by Advani will certainly be discussed,” RSS sources said.
They claimed it was former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari who “opened” the channel of communication between Advani and the two top RSS leaders, who had virtually withdrawn themselves from BJP matters after the exit of the Nagpur politician as the party chief earlier this year. With a section of the media targeting Gadkari over his business links, he had then decided not to seek a second term as BJP chief even though formalities regarding amendment in party’s constitution were already done.
Incidentally, Advani’s reservation about a second term to Gadkari was one of the strong reasons for his exit from the top BJP post. Since then, Advani and Gadkari have moved much closer and have ironed out differences.
The BJP veteran even holds a section of RSS leaders responsible for firing from his shoulder at Gadkari. Recent developments have seen Advani, Gadkari and senior leader Sushma Swaraj emerge as the new triumvirate of the party.