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Khurana all set to quit BJP?

Sujay Mehdudia

`Senior party leaders had let him down on important occasions'

NEW DELHI: The latest salvo fired by former Delhi Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Madan Lal Khurana against the party leadership is an indication of the shape of things to come over the next few days. Frustrated by his continued sidelining by "power brokers" in the party, sources said Mr. Khurana is likely to quit the saffron party after a five-decade-long association.

Although Mr. Khurana is waiting for a response from the BJP central leadership to his plea to take up the cause of lakhs of people of Delhi who are facing an uncertain future following orders to seal shop operating from residential areas, it is unlikely that the leadership would go out of the way to bring Mr. Khurana around. Mr. Khurana had said on Thursday that he would announce his plan of action within two days after waiting for a response from the party leadership.

"He has almost made up his mind to bid good-bye to the saffron party. His tirade against certain party leaders and particularly senior party leader L.K. Advani is unlikely to earn any goodwill for him or his cause. Mr. Khurana in all likelihood will quit the BJP and join hands to form a third front in Delhi that would take on both the Congress and the BJP," said sources close to him.

Sources also ruled out the possibility of Mr. Khurana going along with the expelled BJP leader Uma Bharti who has invited him to join her "Janadesh Rally" on March 21. "He cannot afford to align with somebody like Ms. Bharti who is not only unpredictable but also communal in her approach. His future lies in joining hands with like minded secular parties and groups to take up the cause of Delhiites," said an MLA close to the BJP leader.

Many of his supporters feel that the senior party leaders who have time and again misled him and let him down on important occasions have forced Mr.Khurana into this situation. In the run-up to the December 2003 Assembly polls, Mr. Khurana was promised all support for the various demands raised by him. But his own friends and some colleagues stabbed him in the back and projected him as a rebel in the eyes of the party leadership. "I was promised a Rajya Sabha nomination by both Mr. Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But they went back on their word at the last moment for reasons best known to them," Mr. Khurana remarked.

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