Close on the heels of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief K S Sudershan's controversial remarks on the Bharatiya Janata Party's ageing top brass, party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Friday said the BJP will be led by a new leader in the next general election.
"The guidance and leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani has always been there and would continue and a leader from the second generation would lead the party in the next Lok Sabha election," he told reporters on the sidelines of a 'Janpanchayat' in Bilaspur village, about 40 km from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh.
Naqvi was responding to a question on Sudershan's remarks that Vajpayee and Advani should pave the way for the
second-generation leadership.
Another party vice-president Bal Apte was also present on the occasion.
Asked who among the second rung leaders would lead the party, Naqvi said: "We have a capable and acceptable second-rung leadership who have all been created and developed by Vajpayee and Advani. So there is no vacuum."
Asserting that the Sangh Parivar and the BJP are "made for each other", he said "the next election would be a struggle between the Nehru-Gandhi parivar and the Sangh Parivar, between dynastic politics and nationalism."
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