New Delhi, September 9
The stalemate on the Khurana issue continued for the second day today despite senior BJP leaders holding a series of meetings with party president L K Advani and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who created a flutter yesterday by stating that the former Delhi Chief Minister should have been given one more chance to explain his conduct before expulsion from the party.
Although the two top leaders of the party had a telephone conversation to clear the “air” on the issue, the party leadership failed to evolve a formula which could resolve the issue amicably without an embarrassment to either Mr Vajpayee or Mr Advani.
According to party insiders, though Mr Advani was upset over Mr Vajpayee’s going public on the issue after the party had decided to expel Mr Khurana for six years, he was amiable to an honourable compromise, which would neither hurt the party nor himself.
Meanwhile, Mr Khurana, who had accused Mr Advani of harbouring a “dictatorial” attitude and threatened to show his strength on the streets, today climbed down after a meeting with Mr Vajpayee.
Emerging out of Mr Vajpayee’s residence this morning, Mr Khurana expressed his readiness to meet Mr Advani to resolve his differences with the party chief.
Ruling out any possibility of his joining the Congress, Mr Khurana also maintained that he was still a loyal worker of the BJP and wanted to serve it for the rest of his life with dignity.
Earlier, all through the day, BJP Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and senior leader Jaswant Singh met
both Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani to help resolve the issue amicably.During the meeting Mr Advani is understood to have expressed his anguish over Vajpayee making public his reservation over Mr Khurana’s expulsion, sources said.
Mr Advani is understood to have said that Mr Vajpayee could have conveyed the same feelings to him privately.
Mr Singh and Naidu were with Mr Advani initially for 90 minutes following which they met Mr Vajpayee for nearly an hour and a half.
The leaders thereafter returned to Mr Advani’s residence and were with him again for about an hour.
Sources said Mr Singh and Mr Naidu were of the view that the differences between Mr Advani and Mr Vajpayee were created by media and that Mr Vajpayee had not criticised Mr Advani over the expulsion of Mr Khurana. He had merely said that Mr Khurana should have been given a chance to explain his position.
This led to the two top leaders agreeing to speak to each other on phone to remove any misunderstanding, the sources said adding Mr Khurana’s desire to meet Mr Advani also brought about a change in the party chief’s, stance over the issue, indicating an amicable patch-up formula was in the offing.
However, till late tonight there was no official statement from the party over the issue. When contacted repeatedly, party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said “If there is any statement, we will inform you.”
Mr Vajpayee had yesterday strongly disapproved of Mr Advani’s decision to expel Mr Khurana from the party for indulging in anti-party activities, describing it as “unfortunate”.
