Nagpur:
Senior BJP leader LK Advani is in Nagpur today, where he will meet Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat at the RSS headquarters in Mahal over lunch.
Mr Bhagwat had lunched with another BJP senior Murli Manohar Joshi yesterday and tomorrow will share that meal with the party's president Rajnath Singh.
The three lunch meetings in three days are being seen as the RSS' s attempt to convince leaders like Mr Adavni and Mr Joshi that they must now play mentor and guide others in the party, rather than vie for key posts.
The RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP and likes to have a key say in the internal matters of the party, much to the chagrin of some BJP leaders.
It had insisted that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's promotion as the BJP's election campaign chief be announced at the party's Goa meeting last month, a decision that had provoked Mr Advani to resign from all posts in the party in protest. Mr Advani also skipped the Goa meet.
The veteran leader rescinded his resignation a day later after the RSS chief intervened.
On Thursday, Mr Advani and Mr Modi were strategically seated side by side at a meeting of 12 top BJP leaders as they discussed election plans, among other things. The meeting, and Mr Advani's presence there, was seen as an endorsement of Mr Modi as the party's key strategist.
Mr Advani Advani is one of the leaders who have in recent years resisted the RSS' attempts to dominate the affairs of the BJP. The 85-year-old has not taken kindly to the RSS' advise that he should slip into a mentor's role in the party, advise that the RSS first gave almost a decade ago.
Mr Advani, who was projected as the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP-led national alliance, the NDA, in the 2009 general elections, is said to nurse the ambition of leading the party one more time in next year's general elections. But Narendra Modi is fast emerging a front-runner for that position.
Mr Modi's rivals and his many fans in the party believe that his being appointed the campaign chief is a step towards being named the party's candidate for prime minister.
Mr Bhagwat had lunched with another BJP senior Murli Manohar Joshi yesterday and tomorrow will share that meal with the party's president Rajnath Singh.
The three lunch meetings in three days are being seen as the RSS' s attempt to convince leaders like Mr Adavni and Mr Joshi that they must now play mentor and guide others in the party, rather than vie for key posts.
The RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP and likes to have a key say in the internal matters of the party, much to the chagrin of some BJP leaders.
It had insisted that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's promotion as the BJP's election campaign chief be announced at the party's Goa meeting last month, a decision that had provoked Mr Advani to resign from all posts in the party in protest. Mr Advani also skipped the Goa meet.
The veteran leader rescinded his resignation a day later after the RSS chief intervened.
On Thursday, Mr Advani and Mr Modi were strategically seated side by side at a meeting of 12 top BJP leaders as they discussed election plans, among other things. The meeting, and Mr Advani's presence there, was seen as an endorsement of Mr Modi as the party's key strategist.
Mr Advani Advani is one of the leaders who have in recent years resisted the RSS' attempts to dominate the affairs of the BJP. The 85-year-old has not taken kindly to the RSS' advise that he should slip into a mentor's role in the party, advise that the RSS first gave almost a decade ago.
Mr Advani, who was projected as the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP-led national alliance, the NDA, in the 2009 general elections, is said to nurse the ambition of leading the party one more time in next year's general elections. But Narendra Modi is fast emerging a front-runner for that position.
Mr Modi's rivals and his many fans in the party believe that his being appointed the campaign chief is a step towards being named the party's candidate for prime minister.
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