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Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani coupled with Bharatiya Janata party chief M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday made it clear to party dissidents to either shape up or ship out.
Events at the national council meet of the party at Delhi's Talkatora Stadium also made it obvious that the baton had been passed over from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to his newly-appointed deputy.
"On July 20, Advani had emphasised that he would be the link between the party and the government. In this context, he would be visiting the party headquarters at least once a week, indication enough that he is out to arrest the downward slide of the party and retrieve the tag of being a party with a difference," a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Jharkhand told rediff.com.
"The deputy prime minister has a disarming smile but he has strong teeth too," the MP pointed out.
The rampant indiscipline and factionalism within the BJP in recent times, in a way, reflects on the leadership of Vajpayee who had been calling the shots in the party so far.
By focusing on efforts to wipe out these ills, Venkaiah Naidu also let it be known who is in charge now.
"Vajpayee relished his image as a moderate. But those in charge now are categorical that the party's image will not suffer because of somebody's popular image," the MP said.
The MP revealed that most of his colleagues fully agreed with Advani's view that the opposition, notably the Congress, was incapable of forming an alternative government, as it lacks not just the numbers but also the stature.
Despite the BJP's own poor position, its MPs are still skeptical of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's capabilities.
"Her charisma is limited to reading out written speeches and smiling at party workers. She is simply no match for Vajpayee or Advani," the MP asserted.
The new BJP chief has told party MPs to fan out to the rural areas to make an appraisal of what the people wanted and apprise the central leadership about the feedback, he said.
He indicated that it would take at least six months for the leadership to take stock of whether its new roadmap is taking the party in the right direction or more radical changes were needed to shake the BJP out of its stupor in the wake of its poor showing in the recent assembly elections, the Gujarat riots and the precarious situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
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