New Delhi, July 23
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today chose to absent himself from the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting, asking Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to stand for him leaving enough room for media speculations about the struggle for supremacy in the party and the government between the two.
While the official spokesman as well as BJP spokesman Sunil Shastri said Mr Vajpayee did not attend the meeting due to his “prior engagements”, sources said Mr Vajpayee had been deliberating, allowing Mr Advani to come into sharp focus so that the media, the party and the NDA allies took note of it.
Beyond offering an explanation of “prior engagements”, the spokesman declined to divulge the exact nature of Mr Vajpayee’s engagements which is bound to add fuel to fire.
The sources said Mr Vajpayee had not taken very kindly to the growing proximity between Mr Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes and that is why the former asked his office to issue a statement that the issue of the bifurcation of Eastern Railway would be taken up by the Union Cabinet.
While earlier Mr Vajpayee had asked the Deputy Prime Minister to sort out the railway issue, the PMO statement yesterday raised many an eyebrow.
Media speculations notwithstanding, Mr Advani told the meeting that the government was committed to the development of the North-Eastern region and a separate ministry had been formed for this purpose.
Chairing the weekly parliamentary party meeting , Mr Advani said the government would spare no efforts to ensure that the North-East was given all possible assistance for development.
The Minister for Development of North-Eastern region, Mr Arun Shourie, informed members of various steps being taken by the government to develop the region, Mr Shastri said.
Mr Shourie briefed the members on the two-day North-East summit held recently in Mumbai in which the Chief Ministers of the seven states participated.
