The Hindu : New Delhi News : Is Khurana coming back?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Is Khurana coming back?

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 13. The Rajasthan Governor, Madan Lal Khurana, is a distressed man these days. He is "unable to bear the pain'' caused by relocation of Delhi's polluting industries on the directions of the Supreme Court. And it would not come as a surprise if one fine day the self-proclaimed "priest'' just throws up his hands and returns to his "temple''. "It is just a matter of time before he gets the green signal from the party leadership to return to Delhi,'' a senior party leader said here today.

Unable to find anyone within the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party to plead their case and find a solution to their problems, industrialists from Delhi led by the former Industries Minister, Harsharan Singh Balli, went all the way to Jaipur to seek Mr. Khurana's help on Sunday. However, it is unclear how Mr. Khurana would be in a position to influence the decision of the Supreme Court or speak out on the issue that has taken political overtones in Delhi. It may be noted that Mr. Khurana has always termed Delhi as a temple and himself as its priest.

As per Mr. Balli, who briefed the press here today, Mr. Khurana was pained and distressed by the tale of woes narrated to him and he turned emotional. He also promised to visit the family of Deepak Bhatia, an entrepreneur of Vishwas Nagar in East Delhi who died of heart attack during the recent agitation. However, Mr. Khurana's interaction with five Delhi MLAs and a large delegation of visiting industrialists has set tongues wagging about his possible return to the Delhi scene.

It is no secret that Mr. Khurana has been uncomfortable in his new "avtaar'' and the politician in him has never allowed him to get over the fact that he was no longer in active politics. All the talk about Mr. Khurana's return to Delhi is already beginning to haunt his rivals.

Insiders in the party feel that Mr. Khurana was waiting for a green signal from the central party leadership for his return to active politics. This new development has also signalled the sharp division within the Delhi BJP where some MLAs and a handful of industrialists thought it fit to raise the issue with their "mentor'' in Jaipur rather than taking the leadership in Delhi into confidence. It also signals the clear defiance of the local leadership by its own partymen. The development has come at a time when organisational polls in the Delhi BJP were in the final stage.

However, political observers feel that there is hardly any space for Mr. Khurana in the current scenario in city politics.

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