BJP ‘matures’ after meet at Advani’s home

The BJP learnt a lesson after a meeting at LK Advani’s residence on Thursday to placate MPs miffed over women’s bill.

And the lesson was: Despite fixing broad leadership positions in the party, both in parliament and outside, the framework has to be broadened to accommodate senior leaders who feel left out.

As a step towards that, the party has decided that its former president and MP from Varanasi, Murli Manohar Joshi, will be made chairman of the public accounts committee in parliament.

The post is currently held by Gopinath Munde, the party’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha. Munde’s term will end in April. Other 14 members of the committee are required to vote for Joshi’s elevation to the post. Since this post is held by the principal opposition party, that is just a formality.

Joshi will vacate the chairmanship of the parliamentary standing committee on finance for former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who has expressed a desire to continue with finance rather than diplomacy. Sinha is currently on the external affairs committee.

“The party has the chairmanship of these three committees. Of these, we will surrender the external affairs committee and ask for the chair of some other committee,” leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj said.

While the leadership of Sushma Swaraj in the Lok Sabha and Arun Jaitley in the Rajya Sabha has been appreciated, both of them were accused of running solo shows in Thursday’s meeting. “Hopefully, this would broadbase rewards and posts and responsibilities,” a source said.