TNN

New Delhi, Apr 13: The relationship between BJP and RSS seems to have improved to a great deal over the last year, with the leadership of both organizations thrashing out differences that had crept in.

This was evident from various indications, like the Sangh deciding to fully back L K Advani-led BJP for the Lok Sabha elections during its national council meeting in March where Mohan Rao Bhagwat took over from K S Sudarshan as RSS chief.

Asked whether he anticipated any conflict between the two organizations if BJP came to office after May 16, Advani told TOI, "From the kind of interactions I had with the Sangh leadership over the last one year, I do not anticipate anything (trouble) to come up." Sources close to Bhagwat said even he is of the view that "interactions between BJP and RSS leaderships over the past year had reduced the scope for misunderstandings".

The question to Advani came up in the context of severe differences that came up between the BJP and RSS during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's regime. There were occasions when RSS had got BJP to change portfolios of its senior cabinet ministers, because of "ideological differences" that cropped up between Sangh's line and that of the Vajpayee government.

The only rift during the party's years in Opposition, post-May 2004, was when the Sangh had Advani removed as BJP chief after his Jinnah take in Pakistan in 2005.