NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday evening revoked the expulsion order served on its Delhi leader, Madan Lal Khurana, after he wrote to president L.K. Advani expressing "regret" for his public statements against him and withdrawing them unconditionally.

Mr. Khurana delivered the letter to general secretary Pramod Mahajan here in the afternoon. It was "considered" at an expanded meeting of general secretaries chaired by Mr. Advani at his residence. He then directed general secretary (organisation) Sanjay Joshi to write to Mr. Khurana that his primary membership was restored.

Vajpayee asked him

to apologise

The end of the four-day crisis,which started with a statement by the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on September 8 suggesting that Mr. Khurana should have been given one more chance to serve the party and heard personally before disciplinary action was taken, came after Mr. Vajpayee told Mr. Khurana at a meeting on Monday morning that he would have to apologise for his remarks.

Mr. Khurana's letter — copies of which were distributed to the press — said he had in the last few days made public statements against Mr. Advani which he should not have. The statements "had harmed the party" and "caused mental anguish to you [Mr. Advani]." He expressed regret and asked for a chance to serve the country through the party, adding he was withdrawing all statements he made earlier.

Senior leaders Jaswant Singh, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Bal Apte and Sushma Swaraj and general secretaries Mr. Mahajan, Rajnath Singh, Sanjay Joshi, Arun Jaitley, Ananth Kumar and Om Mathur were present at the meeting at which the letter was considered. Thereafter Mr. Advani "directed" Mr. Joshi to write to Mr. Khurana on his behalf to acknowledge receipt of his "regret" letter, noting that he had withdrawn his public statements against him and saying his expulsion stood revoked.

Virtually acknowledging that in this round Mr. Vajpayee had had his say and way, Mr. Mahajan said, in response to questions, "Vajpayeeji is our supreme leader (sarvoch neta) and it is natural that the party honours his wish." He added: "Mr. Vajpayee plays an influential role in every issue."

The party announced that the Chennai national executive committee meeting would take place on schedule for three days from September 16. The crisis had put a question mark on the meeting, which was already postponed once — because of the standoff between Mr. Advani and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh over his "Jinnah is secular" view.

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