The Hindu : Front Page : Advani must quit both posts: Khurana

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Sunday, Jul 17, 2005

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Advani must quit both posts: Khurana

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party president L.K. Advani on Saturday came under attack from his own partymen, including the former Delhi Chief Minister, Madan Lal Khurana, signalling what is increasingly perceived to be the end game for him.

Letters from partymen demanding or hinting that Mr. Advani should resign became public and no one in the party was willing to say anything in his defence for fear of annoying the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh bosses.

Senior party leaders were huddled at the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's house late on Friday.

Mr. Vajpayee's attitude to the growing demand that Mr. Advani resign immediately both posts he holds — party chief and Leader of the Opposition — could determine the "timing" of his resignation. A senior party leader said that "only Vajpayeeji can bell the cat." Besides Mr. Advani, Jaswant Singh, leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha, and M. Venkaiah Naidu, party vice-president, were present.

It was not immediately known what advice, if any, Mr. Vajpayee gave Mr. Advani.

After this meeting party spokesman Prakash Javadekar said a scheduled meeting of the general secretaries would take place on Sunday evening at Mr. Advani's house; on Monday, a meeting of the parliamentary party leaders would be held at Mr. Vajpayee's residence, and the three-day Chennai national executive would be held as planned from July 21.

Mr. Khurana, also former Rajasthan Governor, delivered the first blow, writing to Mr. Advani — he personally gave a copy to Mr. Vajpayee — asking him to relinquish the posts and accusing him of having betrayed the ideology of the RSS, to which the BJP professes to subscribe.

Next came a letter from former party vice-president Pyarelal Khandelwal suggesting that Mr. Advani agree to discuss ideological issues at the Chennai meet.

He brought up the subject of "one-man, one-post" and the "ideological deviations" apparent in Mr. Advani's statements on Jinnah made during his Pakistan visit in June.

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