Situation vacant: A fresh face for BJP

NEW DELHI: In the coming days, BJP will have to squarely face the fact that it has a leadership crisis. NDA chairperson A B Vajpayee and Leader of Opposition L K Advani may still be the party''s official faces but the buzz both in BJP circles as well as at the just-concluded RSS meeting in Raipur indicate that the search has started for a new face.
The changeover from the Vajpayee-Adavni may take a while because it will not be easy to make the transition.Howver, nothing is likely to happen till the crucial Maharashtra elections due in September are over.
Still the moot question remains: Who can take over from the duo? Should it be RSS poster boy Narendra Modi or someone like Murli Manohar Joshi, a Brahmin from Uttar Pradesh? Joshi''s elevation will assauge the feelings of BJP''s core constituency in the state, which did not vote for the party in the general elections.
But, as sources point out, RSS is known for its pragmatism. Remember the way it preferred Vajpayee to Advani for the PM''s post because the former enjoyed a greater degree of acceptability among allies.
In today''s politics coalition politics is a reality and neither Joshi or Modi can boast of a Vajpayee-type acceptability.
This fact narrows down the choice to the party''s GenNext — party president Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Uma Bharati and Kalyan Singh. Of these, who is the person who measures up to the party''s requirements of being acceptable all over the country and among the allies, has support in the organisational structure and is strong on RSS ideology?
Naidu may have energised the party and ensured greater coordination with RSS, but he lacks mass appeal. Swaraj, very popular within BJP, is hampered by her non-RSS origins. Mahajan''s oratorial skills and political astuteness is offset by his connections with some business houses and chequered career.