RSS keeps out of a row over BJP leadership

Chennai, Aug 16 (ANI): The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) kept off a controversy brewing in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Newspapers and television channels have been reporting that there was a tussle in the BJP as to who would succeed Advani when he steps down.

"We (Bhagwat and Advani) discussed many things. He wanted to meet me. I didn't give him any directive in that meeting and only general affairs were discussed," said Mohan Bhagawat, chief of the RSS.

Bhagwat said both the BJP and the RSS were separate entities.

"The BJP is an independent autonomous body. We didn't direct or we don't think much about that. Our volunteers were there in BJP. Whenever they feel like coming and asking something or we feel like telling them something we do go and tell them. BJP leaders also come to us and ask us whenever they want to tell us something. But both organisations are separate. They are not at all inter-related," Bhagwat said.

The RSS is considered as the ideological fountainhead of the BJP, which managed only 116 seats in the last April/May general elections. (ANI)