Vajpayee may respond to RSS chief's charges

Less than a week after Rashtriya Swaymsevak Sangh (RSS) chief KS Sudarshan said Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani should step aside to make way for a new leadership in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the two leaders met today to decide if a public response to the RSS charges was necessary.

Advani went to Vajpayee's residence after paying floral tributes to the architect of the Constitution, BR Ambedkar, at Parliament, party sources said.

According to sources, the two leaders deliberated upon whether a response to Sudarshan's comments was appropriate at this time or the matter should be buried, after things having come to such a pass.

The meeting comes two days after the BJP and the RSS decided to curb the growing rift in their relationship.

Neither Vajpayee nor Advani have reacted to the remarks made by Sudarshan but it is expected that the former Prime Minister may speak on the issue when he addresses a public forum in Pune on the occasion of Ramnavmi.

The meeting between Vajpayee and Advani came shortly before the former was to leave for Pune. The two are understood to have been saddened by the comments from Sudarshan.

The strain in the Sangh Pariwar has given an opportunity to "secular" parties tohit out at the BJP, and this might have been the factor behind the hush-up job undertaken by the two wings of the Sangh.

Taking a cue from the RSS, VHP leader Giriraj Kishore too made allegations against Vajpayee's son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya. "Vajpayee and Advani should now guide the party and allow the new generation to take over," Kishore said.

Sudarshan and Kishore had also ridiculed the BJP's six-year rule, during which, according to them, the party had succeeded in alienating its core vote base.

Parliament is going to reconvene next week. The Congress has been ruing that because of its own political mistakes the BJP has got a new lease of life in Parliament.

Therefore the Congress and Left will be eager to use Sudarshan's remarks to taunt the BJP with.