Once bitten, twice shy

National leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently sat down with their counterparts in West Bengal to recast members of the party's state executive. The objective: to include new and young people in the executive to reinvigorate the BJP ahead of Assembly elections in the state. Given that polls in the state have to take place by April, the BJP faces a tough task taking on the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress. Party leaders ended up ejecting several old-timers from the state executive. They suggested that the old-timers be "promoted" to a state-level "mentors' group" along the lines of the margdarshak mandal at the central level. However, the BJP leadership, wiser after recent meetings with the margdarshak mandal - which comprises L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi among others - caused much embarrassment to the party, jettisoned the idea. Instead, it favoured a quiet retirement for the old-timers.