A meeting of BJP’s Parliamentary Board has been convened on Friday evening to announce Narendra Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the party. A decision to this effect was taken late on Thursday after several rounds of meeting between top BJP leaders.
Senior leader Sushma Swaraj, who was to leave for Ambala on Friday morning, is also learnt to have cancelled her engagements to attend the meeting. When BJP chief Rajnath Singh met her on Thursday evening, Swaraj reportedly asked him to call a meeting of the Parliamentary Board to discuss the concerns raised by senior leaders, including lK Advani and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The stalemate over projection of Narendra Modi as BJP’s PM-candidate continued late Thursday night leading to speculation that an announcement might not be made in a “hurry.”
The Parliamentary Board meeting could be a stormy affair with battle lines clearly drawn. At least four senior leaders in the 11-member Parliamentary Board — lK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Ananth Kumar — are of the view that issue of PM-candidate should be revisited after the year-end Assembly elections in five States.
An equal number, four Parliamentary Board members — Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu and Thawarchand Gehlot — want Modi to be projected as the PM candidate, immediately.
Former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari shares Advani’s view but his stand would largely depends on RSS’s positioning. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, another member of the board, is indisposed, and Modi could not be part of any decision on his own role.
“Given the numbers in Parliamentary Board, there is possibility of a showdown between the two sides. If Singh makes an announcement without holding a meeting of the body, it could lead to a full scale war. The BJP chief may put in some more effort to build a greater consensus before moving further,” BJP sources said.
News reports had earlier claimed the Singh might announce on Friday, without holding a board meeting, to project Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the party.
Meanwhile, the efforts put in by BJP chief Rajnath Singh in the last 48 hours to persuade BJP top leaders have not yielded results.
On Thursday, Rajnath Singh met Swaraj for 45-minutes to discuss the issue, but she has pressed for a consensus before taking a decision. lK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, who Singh met on Thursday, are also believed to have conveyed the same to the BJP chief.
“I want to clarify that nobody in BJP is unhappy and nobody has put any conditions (on declaring Modi as PM candidate),” Singh said this morning when asked about Advani’s opposition and whether there was any hitch in declaring Modi as BJP Prime Ministerial candidate. Asked when the party’s Parliamentary Board meeting would be convened to take the final call on Modi’s projection, he said, “It will be conveyed to you whenever it will be announced”.
later in the day, M Venkaiah Naidu and BJP general secretary Murlidhar Rao called on Advani to address his concerns. Ananth Kumar also met Swaraj after her meeting with the BJP chief.
later in the night, Rajnath Singh met RSS leader Suresh Bhaiyaji Joshi and then Gadkari had a sepperate meeting with Ananth Kumar and general secretary (Organisation) Ram lal. Gadkari also drove to Advani’s residence late in the evening.
Significantly, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was in Gandhinagar and Modi was expected to meet him.
Inching closer
A meeting of BJP's Parliamentary Board has been convened on Friday evening to announce Narendra Modi as the PM candidate of the party
Senior leader Sushma Swaraj, who was to leave for Ambala on Friday morning, is also learnt to have cancelled her engagements to attend the meeting
The Parliamentary Board meeting could be a stormy affair with battle lines clearly drawn
At least four senior leaders in the 11-member Parliamentary Board — lK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Ananth Kumar — are of the view that issue of PM-candidate should be revisited after the year-end Assembly polls in five States
An equal number, four, Parliamentary Board members — Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu and Thawar Chand Gehlot — want Narendra Modi to be projected as the prime ministerial candidate, immediately
Former Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari shares Advani’s view, but his stand would largely depend on RSS’s positioning. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, another member of the board, is indisposed, and Modi could not be part of any decision on his own role