By revolting, has Advani ruined his chances of becoming President?

The party patriarch's criticism of Modi and Shah for the Bihar electoral loss may cost him the BJP's nomination as its presidential candidate.

L K Advani, the Bharatiya Janata Party patriarch who openly blamed the top leadership of the party -- meaning Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah -- for the Bihar electoral debacle, may have sacrificed his chances of entering Rashtrapati Bhavan with his untimely revolt, say party sources.

Advani was the real brain behind the revolt in the BJP post-Bihar fiasco, regrouping dissenting veterans like Murli Manohar Joshi, Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha. However, it is not certain whether these leaders, given the aspirations of some of them to occupy Raj Bhavans, will stay united for long.

Will Modi forget such manoeuvreings by Advani who calculatedly blamed him for the party’s poor show just before he left for the UK? Sources reply in the negative.

It is being said that with this untimely revolt, Advani has marred his chances of being nominated for the highest office in the country – the Presidency.

Also, this is not the first time Advani has openly gone against Modi and his leadership.

Although after the BJP registered a thumping victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Advani heaped praise on Modi in his address at Parliament’s Central Hall, he later told the media that the credit for the BJP’s win should go to the Congress which lost the people’s trust due to the numerous scams during its rule.

In 2013, when the BJP decided to project Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections, Advani went so far as to skip the party’s parliamentary board meeting and also criticised party chief Rajnath Singh saying 'he was disappointed with party's functioning'. Later, in a blog post, he compared himself with the Mahabharata's Bheeshma Pitamah, who was being neglected by his juniors.

These moves by Advani were seen as a stumbling block for the Modi camp, though nobody openly criticised the party patriarch. However, many pointed at the poor show by the party in the 2009 general elections under Advani’s leadership.

Now, it is being discussed in both the camps within the party whether Advani wants to enjoy power even at the age of 88. Those who are not happy at his vocal criticism of Modi’s leadership also question his contribution to the BJP’s resounding victory in 2014.

It was interesting to see how Modi and Shah handled the party’s parliamentary board meeting after the Bihar loss. Sources said while Modi mostly remained silent, it was Shah, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu who spoke a lot.

The group of veterans supporting Advani’s protest against Modi and Shah is being seen as a 'wrong combination' of leaders. Sources say Joshi and Shourie may not continue with Advani till the end. Also, Yashwant Sinha’s aspiration for governorship or any other important position may not keep him in the anti-Modi camp for long.

In such an event, the only dissenter left will be Advani, with his chances of becoming President almost finished.