Chill before thaw as protege meets patriarch on stage

BHOPAL: BJP patriarch Lal Krishna Advani blew hot and cold at the party workers mahakumbh here on Wednesday by initially giving a cold shoulder to party's Prime Minister-in-waiting Narendra Modi and even avoiding eye contact and then warming up a little bit at the end of the meeting.
It was, however, Modi all the way as lakhs of workers, who had come from all over the state for the show of strength at the Jambooree ground here, rooted for the party's prime ministerial candidate and raised slogans indicating that they want to hear him speak.
None missed Advani's body language when, on two occasions, they got the opportunity to show that they had buried the hatchet. Advani was seen looking away while presenting a bouquet to Modi. A little later when Modi bend over to touch the senior leader's feet, Advani appeared indifferent and though his hands were folded there was no eye contact.
Both Modi and Advani were not sitting next to each other. Modi was flanked by BJP president Rajnath Singh and party's senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi.
There was, however, a visible change in Advani's body language towards Modi after the PM-in-waiting had finished his speech and the workers' meet had concluded. After a short interaction between the two leaders, Advani put his hands of Modi's shoulder.
A little later, in a move to exhibit unit among all leaders, they lined up on the stage and held hands with Modi and Advani standing next to each other.