Advani responsible for Lok Sabha debacle: RSS

After sending out a stern message to crisis-ridden Bharatiya Janata Party to put its house in order, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has trained its guns on senior leader L K Advani, holding him responsible for the party's debacle in the Lok Sabha elections.

The RSS, which has been building pressure on BJP to end its internal bickerings and is favouring younger leadership, feels it was a blunder to project Advani as BJP's prime ministerial candidate and making the party's poll campaign Advani-centric.

In the latest issue of Sangh mouthpiece Panchajanya, the RSS said in an article that Congress cashed in on the blunder made by BJP by playing up Advani's age and projecting its campaign on lines of "old versus young."

In his article, senior RSS leader and ideologue Devendra Swaroop has said the Congress had used Manmohan Singh against Advani 'as Shikhandi was used against Bhismapitahmah in Mahabharta'.

He said the manner in which he got his autobiography translated in different languages and launched with great fanfare, it seemed that he was portraying himself as one sculpting the destiny of Indian politics.