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Advani dodges query on PM post
Faraz Ahmad
Tribune News Service

yatra plans

Advani has said that October 11, which is the birth anniversary of veteran socialist leader Jaiprakash Narayan, was the tentative date for the commencement of the rath yatra. It is likely to begin from Sitabdiara in Saran district of Bihar which is the birth place of Narayan. “We would like to finish it within 35-40 days, well before the commencement of the Winter Session of Parliament,” Advani said.

New Delhi, September 21
In a clear attempt to ward off any RSS/BJP threat to scuttle his proposed rath yatra, octogenarian BJP stalwart LK Advani circumvented the question of his prime ministerial candidature after calling on RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat in Nagpur today.

Advani, who went to Nagpur this morning specifically to “seek the blessings and support” of the RSS chief, drove straight from the Sangh headquarters Resham Bagh to BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s home where Gadkari is recovering from an operation and spoke to newsmen there.

Answering a pointed question about his PM candidature, Advani said, “I will only say that I first became a swayamsewak (of the RSS), then a member of the Jan Sangh and then the BJP. I feel that what I have got from these organisations, from my fellow workers and what the country has given me is much more than the Prime Minister’s post," he said.

When asked whether the Sangh had told him to say he was not in the race, he replied, “Ask the news reporters (who said the clarification was demanded),” adding, "I met the sarsanghchalak and asked for his blessings. He gave me his full support.”

His statement seems to have had the necessary impact with RSS spokesman Ram Madhav reacting here to Advani’s statement within hours and assuring full Sangh support for the yatra.

The question about Advani’s PM candidature had come up when he had announced his yatra on September 8. That day too, Advani smartly skirted a straight reply to a direct question whether the yatra implied that he was reinforcing his PM candidature. Advani replied, “You are asking the same old hackneyed question. This is no occasion for such issues.”

Advani, who virtually presented his yatra as a fait accompli to the BJP leadership, had evoked some surprise and disapproval from the Sangh quarters as well. The Sangh chief had advised Advani way back in 2009 to retire and behave only as a senior counsellor to GenNext. Naturally, the Sangh leaders looked with some suspicion at Advani’s intent to mount his chariot once again and set off on this new journey.

The first signs of some disconcert between Advani and the BJP/RSS came when his initial plan of kicking off his chariot from Gujarat was struck down apparently by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. He was made to look for a new location of its commencement - the birthplace of Jai Prakash Narain - Sithabdiara in Saran district of Bihar.

When he failed to take the hint, Bhagwat summoned him to Nagpur. But Advani has succeeded in circumventing the question every time it is put to him. Sources, however, said that while at Resham Bagh, Bhagwat extracted a firm commitment, Advani is reported to have pleaded that his yatra would flop if he made a public announcement of withdrawing from the PM race now.