Slush Beneath Its Pink Petals

Advani has finally quit as BJP president but the party is still coming to terms with his declaration of being a prime ministerial candidate. At his last press conference as president, Advani made it amply clear that he had no intention of following Vajpayee into retirement. "I have made no such announcement about retirement," he said. Do you see yourself as the face of the BJP in the future? "If the party so wishes I will be ready to serve in any capacity." Will you be around in 2009? "I have never said that I am too old. I had just said that younger people should also come forward."

Quipped a BJP MP: "What Advaniji did was to make a unilateral declaration of his candidature for the prime ministership. It will be interesting to see if someone can become PM simply by wishing really hard to become one." Meanwhile, it is just beginning to dawn on the BJP that the real googly was delivered by Vajpayee. He stunned the gathering of the faithful and created a sensation by declaring that he was retiring from electoral politics. That's when many hadn't really expected him to contest another election or even to lead the BJP in campaign. Vajpayee had yet again stolen the thunder from Advani even though it was really much ado about nothing. But the characters of the BJP's Ramayana are still waiting for Parasuram to elaborate. When Outlook asked Rajnath to clarify which role he was playing, he replied after a silence: "I will say nothing on this matter."