Advani blamed Modi for BJP’s loss in 2004 elections, says new book

LK Advani who’s perceived to have performed an instrumental position in suggesting Narendra Modi’s identify for the place of chief minister of Gujarat and later in keeping off calls for for his resignation following the Gujarat riots in 2002, blamed Modi for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s loss on the May 2004 normal elections, says a e book.

In his e book Jugalbandi that’s primarily based on interviews, personal papers and reportage to hint the historical past of the BJP and its precursor, the Jana Sangh, writer Vinay Sitapati says the get together’s loss on the hustings was attributed partly to deal with “too much ideology”.

The BJP, which hoped to return to energy on the Centre, fell in need of successful the bulk by a 100 seats. “The RSS offered their own diagnosis: ‘The core voter and cadre had developed a disinterest as there was a perception about dilution in its ideology’.… Advani and Vajpayee on the other hand blame too much ideology, and not too little. Though it was Advani who had overruled Vajpayee and saved Modi’s career, he now realised what he had done. Advani ranted to a family friend soon after: ‘The VHP cost us [the elections]. They have become crazy,” the e book says.

The writer goes on to say that the blame for the loss was pinned on the riots, for which Modi was blamed for not having protected the minority neighborhood. “Vajpayee also blamed the 2002 Gujarat riots, claiming, ‘that it is the mistake we made’. At a BJP meeting soon after, he lobbied to sack Modi yet again. But when he was out voted yet again, Vajpayee went with the party line. Yet again. There is no way to tell whether it was Narendra Modi who cost Vajpayee -Advani the 2004 election. What we can tell is that the attitude to alliance partners proved costly,” the e book says.

The e book, which examines the working relations and the ties between Vajpayee and Advani, lays out the pressure of their relations after Advani selected to again Modi.

In the chapter The Lotus Withers, which offers with the BJP’s loss in 2004, the writer feedback on Advani’s electoral administration and says, “The blame for this rickety coalition building must rest with Advani. He lacked the pragmatism that Vajpayee had displayed when moving the BJP from untouchable in 1993 to being embraced by a dozen parties in 1998. Advani’s alliance with Jayalalithaa rather than Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu alone cost 40 seats. For those numbers might have brought Vajpayee back to power. If Advani’s canniest moment was converting the wrath against mandal to momentum for his rath in 1990, his most foolish political moment was now.”

It quotes get together leaders as having recognized Advani’s lack of organisational constructing capability as another excuse for the loss. The fraying of Advani-Modi ties can also be highlighted within the e book. While it offers particulars, primarily based on media experiences, in regards to the tussle that erupted between Vajpayee and Advani over the latter’s help to Modi, particularly after the 2002 riots, it additionally sheds mild on how Advani-Modi relations remodeled forward of the 2014 normal elections.

“ A day after Modi was appointed as campaign head for the imminent elections, the man who had spent his life building the Jana Sangh and then Bharatiya Janata Party resigned from all party positions. LK Advani’s resignation letter is worth quoting in detail: ‘For some time I have been finding it difficult to reconcile either with the current functioning of the party, or the direction in which it is going. I no longer have the feeling that this is the same idealistic party created by Dr Mukherjee, Dean Dayal Ji, Nanaji and Vajpayee ji whose sole concerns was the country, and its people. Most of most leaders of ours are now concerned just with their personal agendas’.”

The e book speaks in regards to the emergence of Narendra Modi because the second Hindu nationalist prime minister of India and “how the lotus was blooming once more, but under new gardeners”.