Advani puts allies’ resources development on top

At a quiet resort in Chhoradi, 60 km away from Gandhinagar, Advani interacted with about 70 influential national and state-level leaders who will be playing key roles in the organisation. Besides Advani, the national leaders who interacted with the select group included party chief Kushabhau Thakre and general secretaries K N Govindacharya and N Venkaiah Naidu.

"Mamata is a mass leader and BJP’s Bengal unit will only be losing if it annoys her," is how he responded when a West Bengal leader accused her of being dictatorial towards the BJP. Advani’s response clearly was a message to the stateparty chief Tapan Sikdar to mend fences with her.

Advani also silenced Tamil Nadu BJP’s criticism of Jayalalitha on the plea that "we should not do anything that could damage the coalition arrangement." But he was not as generous in Amma‘s euology as he was for Mamata.

Advani also explained to the gathering that dismissing the DMK government headed by M Karunanidhi and the one headed by Rabri Devi in Bihar was something the government would like to avoid as a matter of principle. He, however, said the onus of convincing the Centre that there was actually a breakdown in the constitutional machinery in these two states for imposing central rule squarely rested on BJP’s respective state units. In that case, the question of using the Article remained wide open.

According to an insider, the idea behind the conclave was to tell "real leaders" that preserving the coalition arrangement was the top priority as BJP has gained out of such arrangement in the past — 1977 as a constituent of the Janata Partyand 1989 as an ally supporting the government from outside. "Such a compulsion could not have been aired in the much larger national council meeting on May 3 and 4 which was open to the media as well," he added. In fact, the conclave also provided a forum for Advani to share with them the government’s compulsions in not honouring certain poll promises like dismissing certain non-BJP state governments.