New Delhi, Sep 5 (Inditop.com) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani is set to start another nationwide ‘yatra’ to boost the morale of members and search for talent in a bid to rejuvenate the party.
“He (Advani) will launch his ‘yatra’ around Sep 15. It will start from Jammu or Kerala,” a source close to the veteran leader said here Saturday.
The source added that Advani would also visit the election-bound states of Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh in the first week of October.
Advani, 81, had announced in June that he would travel across the country to explain to party workers the reasons the BJP lost the Lok Sabha battle in May.
“In order to let party (members) know both the opportunities and tasks before us, I have decided to tour the entire country. I shall be visiting all the states, and more than one place in some bigger states,” he said.
The tour, initially supposed to begin after the budget session of parliament (July 2-Aug 7), was delayed because of the crisis in the party after it expelled former cabinet minister Jaswant Singh for his book on Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
Now, after intervention by the party’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which gave him the responsibility to revive the party, Advani has decided to launch his tour Sep 15, party sources said.
Unlike his previous “rath yatras”, this tour will not see Advani hold public meetings. He will primarily interact with BJP workers at all levels and get a first-hand account of what ails the party.
The veteran leader will try to the rejuvenate the members by highlighting that BJP is still the second largest political party in the country.
The tour is also aimed at looking for “young talent that can be inducted into the party”, the source said.
The most famous of Advani’s yatras took place in 1990 when the BJP was propping up the coalition government led by V.P. Singh.