Modi,Advani to stand on same platform during Jan Chetna Yatra

The two are not reluctant to dispel this perception but at the same time they do not want to be seen as rivals at war with each other. So,they will be seen together at public gatherings and the instruction to party leaders that they should ensure maximum participation from people and party workers during these two days.

“This is a media perception that the two stalwarts are at logger-heads with each other and media is free to presume whatever from whatever it sees,” said a party worker. He said Modi did not go to the BJP national executive meet because he was doing the navratri fast in those days.

But another party functionary,close to Advani camp,said though he was out of touch with daily activities of the party,he believed that given the nature and perks of the top post,differences could exist between them. The way a group of party leaders projected Modi for the prime minister’s job during Sadbhavana Fast and the way Advani got his Yatra flagged off by Nitish Kumar to keep the NDA support base intact,give away their loosely guarded ambitions,say observers.

State media in-charge of BJP Jagdish Bhavsar is a busy man these days as he is entrusted with coordination among various units and cells in Surat,Vadodara and Ahmedabad where public meetings with target of an attendance of around 50,000 has been given. This looks like a tall order given the fact that one of the major Advani crowd pullers,ex-minister Amit Shah is away,after he was released on bail in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

Modi announced the Sadbhavana fast coinciding with his birthday in September,soon after Advani announced his anti-corruption yatra. There were rumours then that the yatra was to start from Gujarat but later Bihar chief minister and an NDA ally,Nitish Kumar flagged it off from his own state. Party workers found that strange considering the fact that Advani is an MP from Gandhinagar.