Snubbed, Joshi still plays his numbers

Joshi appears isolated over his recent remark that while Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani was no. 2 in the party and he himself was no. 3, the same was not true in case of the Government. The BJP and the NDA appeared to snub him on Monday by saying ‘‘there was no Number 2 or Number 3,’’ and today RSS sources told this newspaper that they would not back Joshi on this score.

Instead of interpreting his party’s stand as a put-down he said: ‘‘Venkaiah has also said whatever I had said.’’ Joshi said this meant he was not necessarily junior to Advani.

The rivalry between the two men is underlined starkly by the photographs on the walls of his house at 10, Tagore Road. At least six of them depict Joshi with Vajpayee. There is not a single picture of Advani. To become part of the ranking war, Joshi will have to first defeat his old rival Reoti Raman Singh.

Of this, he is confident. ‘‘I am going to win in all the five Assembly segments and this time even the Muslims will vote for me,’’ he said. The man who was once BJP’s temple mascot now speaks of modernising madarsas as part of poll pitch.

The irony is his strongest supporters, those from Sangh Parivar, now seem keen to back him only as far as Allahabad is concerned. As far as his ambition of challenging Advani goes, Sangh sources told Express: ‘‘There is a certain inherent message in Advani being designated DPM’’ and that he was ‘‘a natural choice’’ to succeed Vajpayee.