BJP’s parliamentary board rejects LK Advani’s resignation

Mangaloretoday/NDTV

New Delhi, June 11: LK Advani, senior BJP leader, has refused to reconsider his resignation from party posts a day after he was over-ruled and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was chosen to head the party’s campaign in elections due next year.

The top decision-making of the BJP, its parliamentary board, decided "unanimously" this evening to reject the stalwart’s resignation.

 

In a show of unity, senior party leaders like Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj stood with  party chief Rajnath Singh as he announced,"I will not accept his resignation in any form" and stressed the party "needs him and his guidance more today than ever before."

Sources say that despite the overtures to Mr Advani, it will not reconsider Mr Modi’s elevation to the chief of the BJP’s election campaign committee, a move reportedly driven by the party’s powerful ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS.

Mr Modi, who is a member of the parliamentary board, did not fly to Delhi to attend today’s meeting. He tweeted that in a phone call, he had urged Mr Advani to  withdraw his resignation.  He also posted that he will "stand by whatever decision the Board takes."

Mr Advani  has resigned as a member of the BJP’s parliamentary board, its national executive and its election committee. To an array of leaders who visited him today and exhorted a reversal, he reportedly said that "Mr Modi is not the right leader for India."

In a resignation letter he released to the media, despite an appeal for confidentiality from the BJP president, Mr Advani offers a dark assessment of the party he helped found in 1980. "Most leaders of ours are now concerned just with their personal agendas," he writes. (Read the full letter)

Mr Advani is allegedly hurt by this weekend’s protests outside his home by a mob that shouted slogans in support of the Gujarat Chief Minister. He is also upset that the RSS, ordered the announcement of Mr Modi’s promotion at a BJP conference in Goa though Mr Advani was missing.