With his in-house critics L K Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley playing a key role in parliamentary affairs of the party, former BJP President Rajnath Singh on Thursday indicated he would prefer to work for the organisation along with his successor Nitin Gadkari.
"I am not heading any Standing Committee of Parliament and will not take up membership of any of these Committees," Rajnath told reporters in New Delhi.
Since Advani, Swaraj and Jaitley are experts in parliamentary affairs and it is clear that RSS also wants them to play a more pro-active role in Parliament, Rajnath seems to see a better future for himself in organisational work.
As per the RSS diktat, Gadkari will take care of the organisation while Advani, who has been anointed Chairman of BJP Parliamentary Party, and his team will handle the parliamentary affairs.
Asked what role he wanted to play now after completing his term as party president, Rajnath said "I will take up any role that Gadkari wants me to perform. The picture will become clear only after February (when the election of Gadkari is ratified by BJP National Council and he forms his team)."
However, Rajnath indicated he would not like to work as In-charge or Observer for any state but would offer his services in strengthening the organisation in different states. Rajnath feels there is a lack of ideological commitment in some sections of the party and said he would work to rejuvenate this commitment.
"There are some leaders who joined the party to become MLAs and MPs but when they did not manage to do so, they quit the party," he said without elaborating on the issue. Asked whether BJP was going through an identity crisis, Rajnath said "once the ideological commitment is strengthened, there will be no crisis of identity."
With RSS consolidating its grip on BJP after its second successive Lok Sabha poll defeat in May last year, Rajnath appears to be cosying up to the party's spiritual fountainhead by offering to strengthen the party - which is the main agenda of RSS now - and emphasising on ideological commitments.
The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister suggested that keeping the parliamentary and organisational wings of the party separate would minimise differences.
On whether he would concentrate more on his home state Uttar Pradesh now, Rajnath said there were only a few leaders in BJP who had an all-India presence and so he would not like to confine himself to UP alone. PTI
