(1888PressRelease)
March 03, 2007 - New Delhi, Feb 27: The resounding victory of BJP in Uttarakhand and Akali dal-BJP in Punjab has strengthened the position of the BJP president Rajnath Singh within the party and its original source RSS. He would now be able to be more assertive to take his own decsions.
After party's victory in two states, it would now not be possible for the senior party leaders like L K Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee to undermine his authority. This was visible in the second rung leadership of the party that has not accepted him as their president saying he is not a leader of the stature of Vajpayee and Advani, as the junior leaders were all praise for him before the media, be it Sushma Swaraj, M Venkiah Naidu, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Vijay Kumar Malhotra or Arun Jaitley.
Singh who till yesterday was sceptical about predicting his party's position in the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh now proudly says the poll results would certainly have its implications in Uttar Pradesh and the electoral prospects of the BJP have bolstered following the victory in Uttarakhand and Punjab. Immediately after the results from Dehradun came in, Singh was quick in displaying his sense of authority. Despite the fact that B C Khanduri has emerged as frunt runner for the office of the chief minister, the BJP president was not committal on announcing his name because Khanduri is considered to be closed to Advani who has been instrumental in his rise within the party and the NDA government.
Singh merely said the party parliamentary board would meet in the evening and select the leader of the legislative party. It was in contrast to what Venkiah Naidu, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, parliamentary party's spokesman annonced that chances for Khanduri to lead the BJP government in the state are bright. Even Rajnath Singh was till few days back announcing Khanduri candidature.
The change in his attitude and behavior is indicative of a message to Advani that he should not taken for granted now onwards. There is a general perception among theBJP workers that Singh is a stopgap arrangement to head the party till the UP assembly polls. This myth he has successfully broken.
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