Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 29 Fri. June 25, 2004  
   
World


'Vajpayee still tallest leader of BJP'
'Retirement talk a joke'


A day after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee sprang a surprise by virtually announcing his retirement from active politics, BJP yesterday asserted that he remained the party's tallest leader and there was no need to draw an inference from what he had said.

"He (Vajpayee) has his own style. There is no need to draw any inference. He remains the tallest leader of the party," BJP vice president and spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

Naqvi said all decisions in the party are taken collectively and Vajpayee heads the party's collective leadership.

Addressing party activists on Wednesday evening, Vajpayee said in Marathi "Aata bari nako. Pushkal jhale" (No fresh term for me. Enough is enough).

The former prime minister and the NDA chairman was responding to slogans from the audience - "Agli bari, Atal Bihari" (Next time, Atal Bihari).

Meanwhile, the pro and anti-Narendra Modi camp in Gujarat BJP canvassed support for their cause with former chief minister Keshubhai Patel briefing former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the discontentment among state legislators and Modi himself conveying to him on Thursday the state of affairs in the party unit.

Scotching speculation over his retirement from active politics, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Thursday said his surprise remarks on Wednesday night indicating such a course were made in jest.

Addressing the concluding session of the three-day BJP National Executive here, he said his remarks in Marathi had raised a furore and that they were made in jest.

Vajpayee also asserted that there was "no power struggle" within the party. Kursi ki ladai nahin hai, he said.