GANDHINAGAR, June 11: After having miserably failed to capitalise on the recent developments in the State Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership has now set sight on the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) flock in its bid to pull down the Shankersinh Vaghela government.

BJP supremo L K Advani must have been a disappointed man when he learnt, before he entered the State in his air-conditioned Suvarna Jayanti Rath last week, that a patch-up between the irrepressible Janata Dal (G) faction and the Congress leadership had already been effected over the issue of adequate representation of faction members in the Pradesh Congress Committee set-up.

During his four-day whirlwind Rath Yatra in Gujarat, Advani reportedly discussed a strategy with his senior State party leaders to launch `Operation Demolition' to topple the eight-month-old RJP government.

The BJP chief's Sunday statement holding out an olive branch to the 45-odd RJP legislators, inviting them to rejoin their parent organisation is being viewed by political pundits as significant.

But people in the RJP think Advani is wrong. ``Advaniji is trying to bring the horses back to the stable and lock it, but he won't succeed,'' commented veteran RJP leader and RSS strongman from Saurashtra, Chiman Shukla, while reacting to the BJP's latest move to win back RJP MLAs.

In a chat with The Indian Express here on Monday, Shukla, who was responsible for building the BJP base in Saurashtra, ruled out the possibility of any RJP member crossing over to the BJP. ``It sounds ironical that BJP leaders, who have dubbed Khajuriyas as the wastes, have launched a process to recycle the waste,'' the RJP stalwart remarked.

Significantly, besides the BJP leadership, some Pracharaks of the RSS are also learnt to be wooing RJP members in the State. In fact, a senior RSS leader and former Surat-based Pracharak, Bhaskarrao Damleji, has been camping at the New MLAs' Hostel here. He is trying to reach MLAs who may consider a move back to the BJP.

But the move may fall flat. RJP men still hate Keshubhai Patel and Narendra Modi, whose domination of the BJP had prompted them to leave. Besides, Vaghela supporters apprehend that the hawks in the BJP would continue to suspect and ignore them even after rejoining that party.

The Vaghela flock is also aware of the fact that the RSS, continuing to dominate the BJP politics, has already initiated a process of identifying and selecting persons having the RSS background as prospective candidates for elections, whenever they may be announced. Most of the 45 MLAs with Vaghela have little to do with the RSS, so they will not be willing to join the BJP as they stand little chance of getting election ticket.

This apart, the power struggle within the BJP may frustrate the leadership's move to pull down the Vaghela Government. The BJP's biggest problem, it appears, is not how to topple the present government, but is how to reinstall Keshubhai Patel as CM.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.