Praful Bidwai writes in his column about BJP's poll strategy:
Vajpayee must pave the way for the 2 per cent-rating man to take over. The BJP knows Advani is like Dick Cheney, equally devious, but more rabble-rousing and demagogic, who cannot match Bush’s ratings. Therefore, gullible sections of the public and the BJP’s upper middle-class supporters are being cajoled to vote for Vajpayee, only to install Advani as PM, if not today, then tomorrow.
I had raised this apprehension before in my this post quoting noted writer Kamleshwar's view. In my view not only the "gullible" janata even sections of BJP might be day dreaming about a government under Atalji; look at what the young recruits like Varun Gandhi are thinking. But they will be sorry after the elections, for sure. Facts speak for themselves. Advani has suddenly been touted by a section of media as the new "iron-man", Hindustan Times even profiles him as "the Primer Minister to be". His rath-yatra has been very cleverly renamed to "Bharat-Uday yatra" after Atalji nodded in disagreement to the use of his name in the campaign again (remember his tyre-retire rhetoric resenting Venky Naidu's statement that caused an internal furor when he declared that the next election will be fought with Advani. as focal-point). While I am not contesting on who BJP should make the PM, the strategy actually mocks their own view on declaring a leader before the elections, a fact on which they have been teasing Congress for long. But even in their own case they are still declaring a "mask" PM. For the common man it's like ordering a cockatoo at the pet store and getting a hyena delivered later.
