BJP readies for ‘Uday’ in Opposition

The BJP is ready to take up its new role as the main Opposition party, and party leader and former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani is set ...

The BJP is ready to take up its new role as the main Opposition party, and party leader and former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani is set to unfold the party’s new line tomorrow.

In the wake of the defeat in the general elections, the party’s rank and file has been waiting for new directions from the top, and Advani is clear about his task—first ascertain the causes of defeat and then plan a future course.

Since the Bharat Uday Yatra, the ‘India Shining’ campaign and the ‘feelgood’ factor failed to deliver, a logical explanation for their failure would be forthcoming. The party’s three poll planks were leadership, performance and development. The party would, for obvious reasons, not admit to failure of the leadership, and for the others, ‘‘local causes’’ are likely to be blamed.

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However, sources disclosed that Advani is presently preoccupied with a far more substantive exercise. The party awaits a new set of national office-bearers and members of the top fora—national executive, central election committee and parliamentary board. M. Venkaiah Naidu, handpicked by Advani for the party president’s post, had withheld their appointments last year, citing the Lok Sabha polls.

The parliamentary party, too, has to be organised. As many as seven states, including UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, have to elect new party presidents. Some states are through with the entire process except the election of the president.

Sources said Advani is taking a fresh look at the entire structure. The role of each office-bearer during the elections is under the scanner. The capabilities of all general secretaries are being assessed afresh.

The parliamentary party would be taken up first. Some national office-bearers would be shifted from the main organisation to the parliamentary wing. The future of all general secretaries is uncertain. Spokesman Prakash Javadekar has been sent to Maharashtra.

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While Congress leaders have set their sights on gubernatorial posts, the BJP has resolved not to oblige the UPA Government by asking its men to vacate them. Sources said, ‘‘We would rather wait and see what the Government does with the governors appointed by us.’’

Sources said Gujarat Governor Kailashpati Mishra, a former BJP vice-president, had come to meet the President and get a feel of the situation to make up his mind whether he needed to put in his papers. However, his former party colleagues advised him to return to Gandhinagar.