Since the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) problems relate to both leadership and ideology - the two crucial aspects of any organisation - the chances of its recovery do not appear too bright at the moment.

In the matter of leadership, the party has got bogged down in the most familiar of political quagmires: the reluctance of aging and uncharismatic people at the helm to make way for Generation Next.

But the twist in the tale is that there are elements in the party and among the younger set - or the Young Jerks, as they are called by their critics - who do not want the transition process to be set in motion as yet in case it sparks an ugly succession battle.

As a result, the country saw the curious spectacle of 82-year-old L.K. Advani not being allowed to step down from the post of opposition leader in the Lok Sabha despite his expressing a wish to do so after the party's electoral reverses.

That he may not have been too eager to relinquish his office is another matter. The fact is that his offer to resign was turned down. However, it was taken for granted at the time that Advani would give up his post after a decent interval during which time the party might be able to decide on his replacement.

It did not take long, however, to show that not everyone in the BJP was thinking on these lines, for Advani, on his own, announced that he would stay on as opposition leader till 2014.

Nothing showed the BJP's leadership problems in clearer light than this strange decision of a politician to hold on to his office till he is 87 in a country where over 60 percent of the population is below the age of 35.

Since his opposite number in the Congress in 2014 is likely to be Rahul Gandhi, who will then be 42 years old, it is easy to see the incongruity of the situation and how it can prove embarrassing for the BJP.

But there does not seem to be any way out for the party for two reasons. One is that the BJP has always been a two-man party with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the unchallenged numero uno with Advani following a long way behind. The latter has only reached the top now because of Vajpayee's ill health. Had Vajpayee been as fit as Advani is at present, there is no doubt who would have been at the helm.

But that only begs the question, for the fact remains that there is virtually no one else besides these two. The party chief, Rajnath Singh, for instance, has only acquired his present position because the head of the Hindutva brigade, the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), forced Advani to give up the president's post after his praise of Mohammed Ali Jinnah during a visit to Pakistan in 2005.

That event might have rung down the curtains on Advani's political life but for the realisation by the RSS that there was no one of sufficient stature in the BJP to provide leadership. Rajnath Singh's unprepossessing personality hinders his effectiveness in so crucial a position. As long as the BJP was hoping for success, he was able to function without much difficulty.