For Advani’s head, RSS gets the first knives out

With more national executive members expected to write similar letters in the coming days asserting their commitment to ideology over individual, the beleaguered BJP chief—accompanied by loyalists Jaswant Singh and M. Venkaiah Naidu—went across to seek advice from Atal Behari Vajpayee and was closeted with him till late this evening.

His decision, well-placed sources said, rests on Vajpayee’s counsel. If the former PM advises him to put in his papers rather than carry on a bruising battle with the Sangh and its innumerable supporters within the BJP, Advani is likely to oblige. But if Vajpayee decides to back him—as he did following the Jinnah controversy—Advani will stick to his original plan of taking up the challenge at Chennai and ‘‘clarify’’ his ideological position through his presidential speech at the meet.

Advani’s refusal to resign till late tonight is thus being interpreted as a signal that he has managed to secure the support of Vajpayee and is ready for a prolonged battle with the Sangh. Party spokesman Prakash Javadekar dismissed reports of Advani’s imminent resignation as ‘‘baseless’’ and reiterated that tomorrow’s meeting of BJP general secretaries at Advani’s residence to finalise the draft resolutions for the Chennai meet would take place as scheduled.

The spate of letters and soundbytes against Advani through the day came after the RSS sent a clear message to BJP leaders that their chief had lost the Parivar’s confidence. The RSS would withdraw support to the party as a whole if the party did not abandon Advani, BJP leaders were told over the last few days after Advani refused to resign on July 11, sources said.

Khurana, once an Advani loyalist who turned bitter on being removed from active politics and sent out as governor, launched the most trenchant attack.

In a letter to the BJP chief, Khurana said, ‘‘It is public knowledge that the Sangh leadership has lost confidence in you and had expected that you as a disciplined swayamsevak should resign from the presidentship of the party. I do not know whether you respect the sentiments of the Sangh leadership or whether you prefer to go by the advice of people like Sudheendra Kulkarni. But under the present circumstances I find it impossible to continue under your leadership.’’

He accused the BJP leadership of fostering a ‘‘personality cult’’ over ‘‘time-tested ideology’’ and attacked Advani for his comments on Jinnah as well as betrayal of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement.

Tracing the party’s deviation from ideology to 1998 when it came to power, Khurana alleged that it had been ‘‘dictated by a desperation to hold on to government. Now the desire to regain power has widenend the ideological gulf even further and sown the seeds of disintegration in the Sangh Parivar”.

Pyarelal Khandelwal’s letter was much shorter and stopped short of asking Advani to resign. But he demanded that the national executive agenda include three issues—the party’s ‘‘ideological commitment,’’ the controversy sparked off by Advani’s ‘‘Pak yatra,’’ and the principle of ‘‘one man, one post’’.

Jana Krishnamurthy did not disclose the contents of his letter but indications are that he too has written on Khandelwal’s lines. Bangaru Laxman told PTI that a ‘‘lot of confusion has been created in the minds of lakhs of party workers and the party president should clear the air in Chennai.’’ In a TV interview, Uma Bharati—who met the Sangh top brass in Nagpur two days ago—said, ‘‘The nationalist ideology of the Sangh is the basis of the BJP. BJP without Sangh is zero.’’

Advani loyalists tried to dismiss the revolt as the the outburst of ‘‘a few disgruntled elements’’. However, a number of senior BJP leaders including office-bearers also felt that time was running out for Advani. Although no general secretary or vice-president has spoken out against Advani in public, most of them would not risk alienating the RSS by backing him.

To ensure Advani’s isolation at Chennai if he refuses to quit by then, BJP general secretary Sanjay Joshi met several party leaders today and conveyed the Sangh’s directive, sources said.

The meeting tomorrow is likely to take a final view on whether to hold the national executive session at all or postpone it till after the current ‘‘turbulence’’ is over. Advani has so far rejected advice from his team that the meeting be postponed since he wants to use the occasion to make his own stand clear to the party.