New Delhi: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi yesterday met LK Advani to get the BJP patriarch’s backing for his new role as head of the BJP’s campaign committee, an elevation that has split the NDA.
He also discussed with senior leaders the strategy for the five assembly elections scheduled this year-end as well as the 2014 Lok Sabha battle, party sources said yesterday.
Modi also visited ailing former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and met senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi. All three — Advani, Vajpayee and Joshi — have been presidents of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A source close to Advani, who quit party posts a day after Modi was chosen as BJP’s face in the next Lok Sabha election, before relenting, described the meeting as “good” and said it ended “on a positive note”.
But there was no official word on the 45-minute Advani-Modi meeting at the former’s residence.
Party sources said Modi reportedly discussed recent political developments, including the split in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The Janata Dal-United quit the NDA following Modi’s elevation and dumped the BJP from the coalition government in Bihar.
According to BJP sources, Modi is understood to have told Advani that the veteran leader remained the patriarch of the BJP and expressed optimism about the party’s performance in the 2014 general election.
Modi yesterday spent about an hour at the residence of Vajpayee.
In his first meeting with the party’s general secretaries after being named the head of BJP election campaign committee, Modi asked them to come up with ideas to improve the party’s electoral prospects. The strategy session lasted over two hours.
Indicating his special interest in Uttar Pradesh, Modi held a separate meeting with his confidant and state in charge Amit Shah to discuss the seats where the party could emerge stronger, said the sources.
IANS
