Hurt over his marginalisation in the party, BJP veteran lK Advani on Monday quit three key organisational posts and refused to rethink his decision despite day-long efforts by the party leaders to convince him.
Advani's resignation from the BJP's Parliamentary Board, Central Election Committee and the National Executive came a day after the party leadership overruled his objection and nominated Narendra Modi as chief of BJP's campaign committee for lok Sabha elections.
The decision at the BJP's Goa conclave on Sunday was taken in the absence of Advani, who had for the first time skipped such a meeting of the party in the last 33 years.
“For some time, I have been finding it difficult to reconcile either with the current functioning of the party, or the direction in which it is going. I no longer have the feeling that this is the same idealistic party created by Dr (Shyama Prasad) Mookerji, Pandit Deendayalji, Nanaji and (Atal Bihari) Vajpayeeji, whose sole concern was the country and its people. Most leaders of ours are now concerned just with their personal agendas,” Advani wrote in his letter to BJP president Rajnath Singh.
Advani's move sent chill down the spine of BJP leaders who lost no time in making a beeline outside his residence. An emergency meeting of six members of BJP's Parliamentary Board also discussed the situation arising out of his resignation and appealed to him to withdraw it.
“Parliamentary Board unanimously rejected Advani's resignation. Party and nation needs Advani's guidance more than ever before. As BJP chief I will not accept his resignation at any cost,” Singh said after the meeting. He claimed four other members who could not attend the meeting also concurred with this view.
Earlier in the day, senior BJP leaders, including Sushma Swaraj, M Venkaiah Naidu, SS Ahluwalia and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and others met Advani to persuade him to withdraw his resignation. After the parliamentary board meeting, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ananth Kumar again drove to his residence to reason with him.
But Advani remains adamant and was in no mood to consider any proposal of reconciliation. Sources claimed he was more annoyed at reports suggesting that he has placed demands before the party to consider withdrawing his resignation. leaders close to him told The Pioneer, “The manner in which he was dumped at the Goa conclave was the trigger. He has been unhappy for long. He has been unfairly treated.”
It is learnt that Advani wanted deferring an announcement on Modi's “national role” until a consensus was reached at Parliamentary Board.
On his part, Modi tweeted on Monday evening to make public that he spoke to Advani at length and urged him to change his mind and take into account “the wishes of lakhs of party workers.”
BJP leaders do not rule out a showdown of sorts in coming days with reports suggesting that some Advani loyalists in the BJP might come out in open to support the veteran leader. Advani’s taking a back seat in the BJP may spoil equations in the NDA as several allies are very concerned.