Twist in the Tale – Jaitley Meets Rajnath

Akbar Khan

Call it the Uma Bharti effect if you will, or even the professional maturity of a graceful lawyer wronged by the law, but it was Arun Jaitley who finally threw in the towel to end a stand-off that rocked the BJP since party president Rajnath Singh decided to appoint Sudhanshu Mittal as co-convenor for the seven sister states in the northeast.

Marking the end of the feud, Jaitley drove down to Rajnath Singh’s residence in New Delhi on Thursday and spent over an hour with his senior colleague.

What transpired between the two leaders is anybody’s guess, as Jaitley has not spoken to the media since the meeting.

Jaitley has been staying away from meetings of a key party forum to register protest against the appointment of Delhi businessman Mittal, who many believe was instrumental in engineering the alliance between the BJP and the Asom Gana Parshad.

Not one to let an opportunity go abegging, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti too plucked out a few political brownie points from Jaitley’s account by urging him to gulp down the insults and work with her to ensure that BJP prime ministerial hopeful, LK Advani achieved his lifelong ambition.

While on the subject of ambition it is worth a mention that the firebrand Bharti has unpronounced desires to cut short her stay in the political wilderness and return home to the BJP and prominence.

That there is no love lost between Bharti and Jaitley is no secret, as the two indulged in repeated skirmishes that erupted days after Jaitley as party general secretary in charge for Madhya Pradesh ensured that Bharti led the BJP to power in the state after a gap of 10 years.

Some say it was these skirmishes that saw a frustrated Bharti dare Advani and storm out of the party with a handful of loyalists, but that was then, as for now the Karmic wheel seems to have come a full circle for the party that revolves around Dharma.