Nameplates often denote and bear the stamp of the changing power equations in politics. It happened with BJP president JP Nadda too on Tuesday. He will be stepping into the room in the Parliament House which once displayed the nameplate of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Vajpayee’s nameplate was removed on Tuesday from the room in the parliament building, 17 years after he was voted out of office.
The nameplate had stayed at the entrance of Room No. 4, alongside that of another BJP patriarch, LK Advani.
Nadda who has, so far, been using a room reserved for the leader of the Rajya Sabha would now move into the hallowed room which was, though, rarely used by the late Prime Minister.
It is interesting to remember how after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took reins of the government at the Centre in 2014, veteran Advani ‘lost’ his nameplate from the door of his room allocated to him for years in the Parliament building. Advani was then visibly upset.
The nameplate was, however, restored after a day or two for the same unknown reasons for which it was ‘unceremoniously’ removed. Advani used it until 2019 when he along with another party veteran, Murli Manohar Joshi, were ruled out for contesting the Lok Sabha elections.