My blessings with you: Atal

A day after the BJP announced Advani as PM candidate for the next elections, Atal Bihari Vajpayee showers his best wishes to Advani, reports Shekhar Iyer.

“Whatever has happened has happened for the good. My blessings are with you,” former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told LK Advani at their meeting on Tuesday evening a day after the BJP parliamentary board announced him as the prime ministerial candidate for the next elections.

HT Image

An emotional Advani responded:“If I have your blessings, everything will be alright.”

The two leaders waited for the battery of photographers to leave Vajpayee’s 6A Krishna Menon Marg residence before they exchanged their first words.

The BJP’s media managers had alerted the media about the photo opportunity as it has been a long time since the former PM had been seen in public.

Advani later told HT: “It was an emotional meeting considering our long association.”

Advani said he would speak his mind on various issues only after the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh election results are out on December 23.

Advani had a stream of callers through the day, including BJP chief ministers and leaders, Orissa CM Navin Patnaik and Shiv Sena boss Bal Thackeray, all of whom called to congratulate him.