NEW DELHI : BJP patriarch L K Advani today congratulated Narendra Modi but apparently did not give full credit to him saying it needs to be assessed as to what contribution his leadership has made to the party’s unprecedented victory.
The BJP patriarch, who has not shared the best of relations with Modi in the past, called up the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate as soon as it became clear that the party was headed for a clear majority of its own in the Lok Sabha polls.
An emotional Advani, who visited the party headquarters here to be part of the celebrations, told reporters that the country had never witnessed such an election in its history.
He termed the BJP’s victory as a result of mainly the people’s anger against corruption, misgovernance and dynastic rule and asked those in politics to draw lessons from the results.
Refusing to entertain any questions, he said, “We won in places where we had never won in the past. Amid all these things, people who are in power in government and those who are in politics should also collectively analyse this result and take lesson.”
Appearing reluctant to give entire credit to Modi for the party’s historic performance, Advani said, “In this victory, the contribution of Modi’s leadership, RSS and other organisations like the BJP, has to be analysed. But today’s result mainly is against corruption, misgovernance and dynstic rule.”
He said he is very happy with the results and feels that there should be a deeper analysis of why the party got this kind of a mandate.
“I feel in India’s history there has been no other election like this,” he said.
Advani said he has been saying for the past at least two three years from the time of Commnwealth Games that country’s views are going against Congress and the ruling party should understand that they contributed to most of it.
“We were in opposition and we took advantage of that. But any amount of efforts by us still cannot match the work done by Congress. I don’t think any government in India’s history has worked that hard to lose,” he said.
Advani, who has been sharing frosty ties with Modi, spoke for sometime and shared the good news of the party’s impending victory, party sources said.
The veteran BJP leader, who was initially not happy over Modi being declared the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate in September last, has been predicting the party’s best-ever performance in these Lok Sabha polls.
He had also stated that the response of people towards BJP this time has been “unprecedented”.
Advani had skipped the party’s all-important meeting of the Parliamentary Board on September 13 last year when Modi was anointed the PM candidate.
He had also given a miss to the meeting of BJP’s Executive Committee in Goa where Modi was anointed to lead the party’s Campaign Committee in June last year, after which he resigned from all party positions in protest. He withdrew his resignation the next day following intervention from RSS leaders.
Meanwhile, top BJP leaders have been holding hectic parleys among them and with RSS top brass to decide on Advani’s role in the next government led by it.
BJP President Rajnath Singh also congratulated Modi over telephone. (AGENCIES)
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