Modi changes mind on Advani yatra,had hinted hed keep away

According to sources,given his special relationship with Advani,Modi took it upon himself to articulate widespread reservations in the party vis-a-vis the yatra,as well as his own. The partys unease has to do with concerns of various state units that it would divert organisational energies from more pressing situations at hand,such as dealing with the aftermath of the flood and earthquake in West Bengal or the change of CM in Uttarakhand.

In the central BJP leadership,murmurs of resistance to the party veterans yatra were touched off by a sense that having succeeded in cornering the Congress-led UPA government on the issue of corruption,the anti-corruption yatra could end up needlessly changing the subject to the BJPs internal leadership tussle and the problem of too many prime ministerial wannabes. This could even provide a reprieve to the UPA government,went this argument.

A section of party leaders also felt that with Anna and Ramdev already in the fray,Advanis yatra could end up as a me-too gambit on an issue that,for the moment at least,may have been exhausted of its charge.

The idea of the yatra against corruption and for good governance,presented almost as a fait accompli by the BJPs senior-most leader,was not entirely new.

Earlier this year,after the 2G and CWG scams had hit the headlines and paralysed Parliament and before Anna sat on his fast at Jantar Mantar in April,a proposal that had been thrown up in the aftermath of the BJPs 2009 poll debacle was revived by those seen to be close to Advani: that he should recast himself as a JP-like figure.

The idea was the senior leader would devote his energies to a mass mobilisation programme against corruptionin the process ruling himself out of the electoral fray.

That proposal remained grounded,and according to a view in the Parivar,the reason was Advanis own reluctance,or of those close to him,to categorically and explicitly rule him out of future leadership stakes. Then,Anna stepped in,followed by Ramdev,and the initiative seemed to pass into the hands of non-political or anti-political actors.

Party leaders,in spite of their off-the-record reservations,have officially rallied behind Advanis programme at the National Executive; Advanis decision to relocate the yatras launching point from Gujarat to Bihar,and to get Nitish Kumar to flag it off instead,have further confirmed Modis sense of persecution. It is being felt,both in the party and the Sangh,that Modi may have overplayed his card this time,especially since party leaders,including Advani,had lined up onstage for his Sadbhavna show last month in Ahmedabad.

Meanwhile,relations between Modi and party president Nitin Gadkari had soured for another reason. Modi read Gadkaris reinduction of Sanjay Joshi,erstwhile powerful party general secretary and RSS pracharak who was expelled from the party in 2005,as a personal insult. Modi and Joshi have faced off in the past in Gujarat,the state they both hail from,and their long-time hostility for each other is no secret in either the Sangh or the party.

Having withdrawn into a sulk,be it on account of Advani or Joshi,now Modi finds himself in a situation where,unlike in the past,the Parivar is not straining to reach out and placate him.

Sources say Modis emissaries are now trying to calibrate his message for the consumption of the party and Sangh from playing down his opposition to Advanis yatra to projecting his stand against Joshis reinduction as a larger principled battle against RSS interference in BJP affairs,to portraying the chief minister as an embattled loner still pursued by the ghosts of 2002,the latest being the challenge by Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt.