RSS sore at Advani's absence at Ram Sethu meet

The absence of Leader of Opposition L K Advani in Sunday's Ram Sethu rally has ruffled the feelings of the Sangh Parivar that seemed to have patched up after he was chosen to lead the BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections.

The reason Advani could not make it to the meeting in the outskirts of the capital was that he had to attend the swearing-in of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal at Shimla.

But the Parivar leaders said the Leader of Opposition did not choose to show up even though several BJP leaders, including BJP chief Rajnath Singh and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister P K Dhumal, could attend the meeting.

Unlike former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani did not even send his message, expressing his support to the Ram Sethu movement.

Advani's absence is being seen as his unwillingness to uphold the Hindutva sentiments by the Sangh Parivar, as Advani is more interested in catering to the NDA constituents by hanging on to the agenda of  "development and progress" alone and making himself acceptable to them in the post election scenario, the Sangh leaders rued.

His statements issued soon after the Gujarat elections also seemed to overlook the rich dividends accrued to the BJP, by the unification of Hindutva forces to counter Congress President Sonia Gandhi's 'merchants of death' remark.

Even the focus of the meeting of the top BJP leader at his residence recently was also about projecting him as the leader for the next elections and not about the Hindutva ideology which had yielded results in the Gujarat, informed sources said.