Vajpayee concerned over leaders leaving bjp

Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee concluded BJP's two-day National Executive by cautioning the BJP that too many people were leaving the party.

In a reference to the unceremonious exit of former chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Delhi - Uma Bharati, Babulal Marandi and Madan Lal Khurana, Vajpayee said that the trend was worrying.

Vajpayee said that the BJP did not face any external enemies but ones on the inside. "If your own people become a source of problems, then there is a need for something to be done," he said.

Unlike other senior leaders, he, however, did not squarely blame a lack of discipline for the ills of dissidence that plague the party.

"If in the atmosphere that we create in the party, people find that they are not able to express what they feel in the right forums, then it is a matter of concern," he said.

His reference was to the outspoken rebellion by Babulal Marandi and Uma Bharati which was always round the corner and whose grievances had not been addressed by the party.

Vajpayee had in fact tried to rehabilitate Madan Lal Khurana and had tried to give a hearing to Bharati as well.

He also said that inter-personal relations between party members were dependent on their behaviour with each other. These homilies reflected the infighting that had become de rigueur in the party after the second generation of BJP leaders started occupying centre stage.