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Modi tries to please Advani, Vajpayee, party elders

Last Updated 18 June 2013, 19:51 IST

On his first visit to the national capital after being appointed chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) poll panel, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday tried to please party elders, including patriarch L K Advani.

He also held a meeting with general secretaries to discuss the poll campaigning.
Modi met Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to connect to the party legacy. Advani had made his annoyance public after Modi’s elevation as poll panel chief.

 However, Modi avoided the media except for a very brief interaction at Yojana Bhavan after his meeting with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to finalise the state plan.

“Narendra bhai remained focussed on the poll campaign in his meeting with general secretaries and members of the programme implementation committee of the party.
 No other issue was taken up,” said Ananth Kumar after the meeting.  “He asked leaders to meet after a couple of days to further discuss the issues highlighted on Tuesday,” he added.

The strategy for Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Mizoram Assembly elections scheduled for this year is being finalised along with that for the 2014 general election.

The meeting between Advani and Modi is believed to have covered the controversy that followed the Gujarat chief minister’s appointment as the poll panel chief and Advani’s resignation from all party posts and his subsequent withdrawal after an intervention by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

Advani is said to have made it clear that there was nothing personal in him opposing the decisions taken at the Goa conclave.

Modi is supposed to have assured Advani that he will run the poll campaigning under the guidance of senior leaders and party functionaries.

Party sources say the JD-U’s exit from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over Modi’s appointment also came up for discussion. Both leaders are said to have discussed the implications of the split in the NDA.

Meanwhile, Joshi said Modi expressed his gratitude to the party on his appointment as poll panel chief.

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(Published 18 June 2013, 19:51 IST)

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