Atal-Advani rift deepens

Even as the top two leaders of the BJP, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani left Delhi today without an end in sight to their feud over the expulsion of Delhi leader Madan Lal Khurana, the former Delhi chief minister today formally received his expulsion orders, further deepening the crisis.

The serving of the expulsion notice signals hardening of party chief L K Adavni's stance. Advani has been reportedly very upset with Vajpayee for supporting Kkhurana, who had been expelled for making several damaging statements about Advani.

Vajpayee is travelling to his constituency in Lucknow while Advani was in Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh.

An apparently upset Khurana who, received the letter signed by BJP General Secretary Sanjay Joshi late last night, rushed to Vajpayee's residence early today to register his protest.

"It's clear that a section of the BJP is against me. It is a matter of concern that the letter has been served on me when talks were on and Vajpayee had expressed his reservations about the decision," he said after his 90 minurte meeting with Vajpayee.

As Khurana left, party general secretary Pramod Mahajan, who has been mediating between Vajpayee and Advani, called on the former prime minister prior to his departure for Lucknow.

The latest salvo from Advani has deepened the crisis in even as efforts were being made over the past two days to diffuse it.

"This crisis has now become a stand off between Vajpayee and Advani. It started with Vajpayee wanting Modi to be removed, and has now moved over to the question of Khurana's expulsion.