With general elections just a few months away, the BJP is confronted with a variety of in-house problems. Cohesion seems to be missing in the top rungs of the party, newer allies appear hard to come by, and the Congress is readying a campaign that will showcase its young leadership. The only silver lining, say party insiders, is that the RSS has given them carte blanche to decide on the party?s agenda and sew up a working pre-election alliance with other parties.
* Two industry captains, Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, said at the ?Vibrant Gujarat Summit? that Narendra Modi can lead the country. The BJP was awash with theories. Did it mean a fresh challenge to L K Advani?s status as NDA leader, especially when Modi took his time in setting the record straight on Advani being the alliance?s undisputed PM candidate? Stories of the supposed rivalry between the two have appeared ever since Advani?s name was announced as the NDA?s PM candidate, ahead of the Gujarat elections. Some even saw a ?Farooq vs Omar Abdullah? dynamic between the two. However, if in Advani Modi has his biggest votary in the party, Modi is Advani?s biggest source of strength. In all probability, Modi is positioning himself as the post-2009 election leader of the party, something that will be opposed by party president Rajnath Singh. It is then that he may attempt to erase the blot of the 2002 riots, something that his detractors in the party, NDA allies, and non-BJP parties insist is easier said than done.
* After being vice-president, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat wants to begin another innings at the Centre, ostensibly to wage a war against corruption. The real reason could be that he is cut up with Vasundhara Raje, after she managed to outsmart and outgrow Shekhawat and the RSS in the state. Shekhawat is meeting everyone who cares to meet him, from Digvijay Singh to Kamal Morarka and KN Govindacharya. He may not be making direct observations against Advani, but with the NCP and Congress fishing in troubled waters, he is giving the NDA alliance some anxious moments.
* Lodh leader and one-time mascot of the Ayodhya agitation, Kalyan Singh recently went hammer and tongs at the NDA leadership over its handling of the terror issue in the aftermath of the Parliament attack in 2001. He is said to be in touch with Samajwadi Party leaders, for he has a litany of woes that he wants the BJP to address. He wants UP leader Ashok Pradhan to be shifted out of Bulandshahar, from where he wants his son, Rajvir Singh, to contest. He?s also interested in a couple of other seats for his old associates from the Rashtriya Kranti Party (which he once headed) days. Incidentally, his earlier demand of a Rajya Sabha seat for associate Kusum Rai has already been accommodated by the party.
* RLD?s Ajit Singh has not yet committed himself to a BJP-led alliance, after giving indications to this effect. While he has re-opened his channels with the Congress, the BJP believes he will eventually come on board. Meanwhile, the BJP?s Punjab unit is up in arms against Parkash Singh Badal using the election-eve opportunity to catapult son Sukhbir to the centre stage as deputy CM. In neighbouring Haryana, the party has not managed to draft Kuldeep Bishnoi into the ?grand alliance? against the Congress. Chiranjeevi?s Prajya Rajyam Party has ruled out any truck with the BJP, and Jayalalithaa has already hitched her fortunes with those of the Left. The BJP now nurses the hope that ?many of these parties will switch camps once the election results are announced?.