Rahul Gandhi arrives in Parliament on Tuesday, the first day of the winter session. (PTI)

New Delhi, Nov. 9: Rahul Gandhi wished L.K. Advani on his birthday with a bouquet and questions on the kind of electoral reforms that the BJP veteran wants, sources in the BJP said.

The Congress general secretary had learnt by chance that Advani turned 83 yesterday. Shortly after President Barack Obama left Parliament, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul were waiting for the security staff to unlatch the exit doors. As they waited outside the BJP leader’s chamber, Advani spotted them and asked them in for tea. His daughter Pratibha, who had come to hear Obama, informed the Gandhis it was her father’s birthday.

After they greeted him, Pratibha invited them for a get-together this evening at his residence.

As they sat talking, Rahul asked the BJP leader to explain how the concept of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, which he has often advocated, would work in India. Given the uncertain character of coalition governments, how could a mid-term election be avoided if the incumbent government was toppled, Rahul asked.

Advani gave the example of Germany which only allows a constructive vote of no-confidence — Parliament can withdraw confidence from the incumbent head of government only if it can demonstrate a positive majority for a prospective successor.

This concept is embedded in Germany’s history. Successive governments in the 1919 Weimar Republic were unstable and a Chancellor would be voted out without a successor in place. This led to quick successions of Chancellors and finally to the imposition of cabinets that were dependent on the confidence of the President of the day. The instability was perceived to have been responsible for the emergence of Adolf Hitler.

It is not known if Rahul, who was with Advani for about 15 minutes, was convinced by the explanation.

This morning, the Congress MP went to Advani’s room with flowers and conveyed that they would be unable to accept Pratibha’s invite. Rahul again engaged the BJP leader in a discussion on electoral reforms. Public funding of election campaigns and compulsory voting are two other ideas that Advani has pushed. BJP-ruled Gujarat has enacted a law to make voting compulsory in local body elections but the rules are still to be worked out. This time, too, Rahul spent about 15 minutes in Advani’s room.

Rahul, as the general secretary in charge of the Youth Congress and the National Students’ Union of India, has been bringing electoral reforms in these organisations. He had enlisted the services of former election commissioners K.J. Rao and J.M. Lyngdoh for an overall clean-up and accepted their proposal to not let people chargesheeted with punishable offences to contest.

Advani was recently quoted as saying he was curious about Rahul and he had asked journalists covering the Congress about him but even they didn’t seem to know much.