RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at the news conference in Delhi on Friday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar

New Delhi, Aug. 28: Top BJP leaders close to L.K. Advani rushed to the Sangh chief late tonight after Mohan Bhagwat suggested publicly that his advice to usher in a younger leadership should be put into action sooner rather than later.

Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar held a two-hour meeting with Bhagwat, following it up with a round of talks with Advani. Party sources said the quartet presented a strong case for Advani’s continuance or at least an honourable exit at a time of his choice.

Sangh sources said Bhagwat stuck to his position and asked the leaders to finalise the succession plan. They said the RSS chief stressed the need for Advani’s exit and asked them to choose the new party president and the leader of Opposition through consensus among senior leaders.

Sources said Advani has been called for a discussion with Bhagwat tomorrow.

Naidu dismissed the talk about leadership change. “There was no discussion on succession or leadership change.”

“It was your speculation and you will be disappointed,” PTI quoted him as saying at Advani’s residence.

The sources said the swift move on Advani’s part came after Bhagwat made it clear at a news conference that his advice for change would have to be implemented by the BJP. He referred to the suggestion made earlier in an interview that a younger leadership should be put in charge in the BJP.

Bhagwat refused to answer questions about the BJP’s internal strife and the RSS action plan to set things right, but said his views on these issues were made public in the interview. He said he had told Advani when they met last to implement the suggestions. “When Advaniji met me, I told him to evolve a consensus on his suggestions and implement the idea. He was also concerned. I hope they will do it,” he said.

Bhagwat had talked of leadership change, promotion of younger leaders, internal squabbles and the primacy of ideology in the interview. He reminded the BJP of the interview, mentioning it over a dozen times while avoiding direct replies to questions about the party. In the interview, he had said, “change is desirable in every organisation” and leaders in the “age group of 55-60” should be promoted to the top slot.

Bhagwat kept repeating that he would not give unsolicited advice to the BJP and political and organisational decisions had to be taken by the party leaders themselves.

Sangh sources revealed he had called a three-day meeting at Hardwar from September 1 to finalise the road map for the BJP.

Bhagwat gave a glimpse of his thought process on the controversies over Jinnah, Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie. He said the RSS held Jinnah responsible for Partition. His description of Shourie as a “very respected” and senior journalist drew the interpretation that Bhagwat was being mild on the man who had launched a vicious attack on the leadership because he was pushing the Sangh agenda for change.