NDA to formally launch Advani as PM choice

More than a month after he was declared the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP, L K Advani will meet his NDA partners on Tuesday.

More than a month after he was declared the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP, L K Advani will meet his NDA partners on Tuesday.

The agenda: a formal introduction of Advani as NDA’s leader. Sources said leaders of Janata Dal (U), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal (B) will participate in the meeting. They would include three non-BJP chief ministers — Parkash Singh Badal (Punjab), Naveen Patnaik (Orissa) and Nitish Kumar (Bihar). NDA convenor George Fernandes, JD (U) president Sharad Yadav, Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray are scheduled to participate in the meeting. Apart from putting the NDA seal on Advani’s candidature for the top job, the move is intended to consolidate the NDA and put it in poll-gear, taking advantage of the current upswing in favour of the BJP, post Gujarat and Himachal wins.

An invite has gone also to Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee. However, the BJP is not very optimistic about her participation, considering her party’s local alignments. Swatantra Bharat Paksh leader Sharad Joshi, a member of the Rajya Sabha, has been invited too. He leads a one-man party, but the BJP is keen on projecting him as a part of the fold to showcase NDA as a broad front.

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The BJP contingent will include party president Rajnath Singh, leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Vijay Kumar Malhotra and S S Ahluwalia.

The meeting comes amid speculation over the continuation of Fernandes as NDA convenor, but sources in the JD (U) are dismissive of any suggestion that Nitish or Sharad have any reservations about him. “No one else from our party is interested in the job and it is up to Fernandes and the BJP to see if there has to be any change in the present arrangement,” the sources said.

Police personnel seen to control the situation during a massive protest over the statehood demand and the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule, in Leh on Wednesday. (ANI Video Grab)

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