BJP readies yatra spin to keep Bharati happy

Although BJP leaders such as Arun Jaitley today denied any altercation between Bharati and Naidu, party sources confirmed that given Bharati’s ‘‘temperamental nature’’ her outburst was nothing unusual. But temperamental or not, the BJP leadership realizes the need to keep her happy, as she combines many key facets. ‘‘She is a woman , she is young, she is an OBC, she is aggressive, she attracts the party and Parivar rank and file — all these factors put together make her formidable,’’ a BJP leader said.

To keep her in good humour, therefore, the BJP is taking a busload of journalists all the way to Agra tomorrow merely to cover her press conference. One reason for the Agra trip is to ensure that Bharati also gains eyeballs on a day that Swaraj is set to hog the limelight with over 100 MPs in Port Blair.

But regardless of how much publicity the yatra and satyagraha attracts, the entire exercise appears to have been counter-productive for the BJP. The most important political challenge before the party now is the Maharashtra elections, but party general secretary in charge of the state, Pramod Mahajan, has declared that the Tiranga and the Savarkar issues were not of much importance in the state.

Moreover, the two ‘‘mass campaigns’’ of the BJP have only brought to the fore the seething rivalry among the second-generation leaders, each trying to establish a headstart in the race to reach the top in a post-Vajpayee and post-Advani dispensation.