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Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party leader Madanlal Khurana met former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Saturday for the second consecutive day and expressed willingness to work under party President L K Advani saying his problem was only with the younger leaders trying to replace the old guard.
During the hour-long meeting, Vajpayee told the former Delhi Chief Minister that Advani was "unhappy with him" as he had demanded the party President's resignation in the wake of his controversial remarks in Pakistan.
Khurana told Vajpayee that he had always considered Advani as a guide along with Kedarnath Sahni. Khurana, who was expelled from the party on September 7 for gross indiscipline and anti-party activities, said his only concern was that some emerging leaders were trying to "usurp" the positions of senior leaders.
Citing the examples of veterans like Chamanlal Gupta of Jammu and Shanta Kumar of Himachal Pradesh, he said all these leaders were insulted. "It is like a son taking over the business of father and not even acknowledging his presence.
In the process younger generation commits several mistakes," Khurana told reporters after the meeting. In an apparent dilution of his earlier refusal to work under Advani, Khurana cited a letter dated August 10 addressed to party President in which he had explained the reasons that had "compelled" him to go public against the party leadership. He regretted that the party did not make this letter public.
Meanwhile, hectic parleys continued amongst the party's top leaders to end the stalemate caused by Vajpayee's open criticism of Khurana's expulsion.
Senior leaders, including Pramod Mahajan and Rajnath Singh, shuttled between the residences of Vajpayee and Advani. Other leaders, including Jaswant Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sanjay Joshi and Ananth Kumar, also met Advani a day after the top two leaders spoke over telephone to break the impasse.
Another senior leader and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, who had also opposed Khurana's expulsion, also met Vajpayee. However the leaders, after emerging out of their meeting with Advani, refused to say anything to the media.
During their talks yesterday, Advani is understood to have expressed his anguish over Vajpayee publicly criticising Khurana's expulsion, while the former prime minister reportedly expressed his displeasure over the manner in which a senior leader like Khurana was expelled without being given an opportunity to explain his position.
Vajpayee was expected to come out with a statement last evening maintaining that he did not mean to question Advani's authority, but the same did not materialise.