Shettar hopes Advani will reconsider his decision

BJP Legislature Party leader and former chief minister Jagadish Shettar on Monday hoped that senior leader L K Advani, who resigned from the top party posts, would reconsider his decision.

When reporters sought Shettar’s reaction at the Vidhana Soudha, he said Advani should not have resigned from the BJP parliamentary board.

“I hope he will reconsider his decision. Our national leaders are trying to convince him. I hope that they will be successful,” he added. State BJP president Pralhad Joshi remained incommunicado.

B S Yeddyurappa, former chief minister and KJP president, said: “Advani is a senior BJP leader. I feel that he has taken a hasty decision.  He should not have done this. But this is BJP’s internal matter.”

MLC Lehar Singh Siroya, who has been suspended from the BJP, said it is unfortunate that Advani has no ideological, but personal agenda. Till yesterday, he wanted Nitin Gadkari to become the chairman of the campaign committee. A day after, he has said the party has deviated from ideology, he remarked.

Singh was suspended from the BJP for writing to Advani posing him some “uncomfortable” questions regarding his (Advani’s) stand on Yeddyurappa when he was the chief minister. Singh had pointed out that Advani should not have made sarcastic remarks in his blog that he would have been surprised if the BJP had won the State Assembly polls. Singh, a close associate of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders in Delhi, had reportedly sought an appointment with Advani to seek replies to his questions.

Singh said Advani had alleged that many in the BJP had personal agenda. “I can’t imagine Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shivaraj Singh Chouhan or Raman Singh having any personal agenda. It is unbecoming of Advani to make vague allegations. Let him specify who has a personal agenda so that the BJP can know about it. Except Advani, nobody seems to have any personal agenda. Narendra Modi has 2014 elections as the agenda,” he said. The discredit of insulting senior leaders Kushabhau Thakre and Sunder Singh Bhandari should go to Advani, Singh alleged.