Advani attends crucial BJP meet with Modi

Advani attends crucial BJP meet with Modi, opposes him over re-inducting Yeddyurappa

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders LK Advani and Narendra Modi on Thursday came face to face at a meeting of the party Parliamentary Board to strategise on the elections for Lok Sabha, in a significant interaction coming less than a month after the patriarch's revolt of Modi's elevation.
Just as dust settled over the controversy on Narendra Modi's elevation as the BJP's campaign panel chief, fresh differences have emerged between the Gujarat chief minister and party patriarch L.K. Advani. This time the issue is about the return of former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa into the party.

Sources told Headlines Today that Modi and his camp have been favour re-induction of Yeddyurappa since they feel his party's (KJP) 10 per cent vote share in Karnataka can swing the BJP's fortunes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Sources said BJP's Karnataka in-charge Thawar Chand Gehlot is also in favour of Yeddyurappa's return to the party. Moreover, Modi also has the backing of Yeddyurappa's supporters.

However, the Advani camp is opposed to the tainted leader's return to the BJP. Party sources said Advani is strongly opposed to Yeddyurappa's return and would prefer a loss in the election to a tainted politics. According to sources, Advani feels Yeddyurappa's return would hurt its plank on corruption and that he wants to rebuild the party's Karnataka unit with fresh faces.

However, sources indicated that Modi was likely to call for Yeddyurappa's return despite Advani's veto. This is not the first face-off between Modi and Advani. The two locked horns over Sanjay Joshi's removal, then over the venue for Advani's Jan Swabhiman Yatra and the most recent one was the face-off over Modi's elevation to the top the post of BJP's poll panel chief.

Yeddyurappa had to resign as Karnataka chief minister in July 2011 after the Lokayukta report on illegal mining indicted him following which a spate of corruption and land de-notification cases were filed against him. Yeddyurappa quit the BJP in December 2012 and floated his Karnataka Janatha Paksha (KJP). The BJP was swept away by the anti-incumbency as the Congress secured 121 seats in assembly election earlier this year. Though the KJP secured only six seats, its 10 per cent vote share ensured the decimation of the BJP.