BJP will emerge from present crisis: RSS

In what is seen as a balancing act, RSS chief Bhagwat this morning drove to Advani's residence for breakfast like he went to another senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi's house for a luncheon meeting on Saturday.

"The RSS is assured that the BJP leadership as a party will stand united, face the present situation, overcome all problems and emerge stronger. We have been given such an assurance and we also feel that they will resolve the problems," RSS leader Madan Das Devi, who accompanied Bhagwat to the breakfast meeting, told reporters after the discussions.

He described Advani as the "senior most" leader of the BJP and said it was natural that he and other leaders would meet Bhagwat and discuss the current situation in the party and the nation.

To a question on the situation in BJP, Devi pointed out that Bhagwat had already said in his Friday's press conference that the BJP leaders will discuss among themselves and come out with a decision which would be announced when it is taken.

He said BJP is a big party of activists and "crises will keep coming" and the RSS was confident that all problems would be resolved.

Top BJP leaders have met Bhagwat in the last two days and held intense discussions with him on overcoming the current leadership crisis triggered by the Lok Sabha poll defeat and brought more starkly to the fore after the rebels sharpened attack on Advani and party President Rajnath Singh in the wake of expulsion of Jaswant Singh over his book on Jinnah.

Sources said the RSS chief's visit here and discussions between the leaders of the Sangh and the party were some sort of brainstorming sessions over the reasons for the electoral defeat.

It was conveyed to the party by the Sangh founthead that it cannot resort to indiscriminate expulsion of leaders and there should be some platform in the organisation for ventilating grievances by leaders, sources said.

There has been intense speculation over the possible successors to Advani and Rajnath Singh as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and party President respectively but party sources said that no no decision has been taken nor nor had the RSS given consent to any proposal. Emergence of a dark horse for both the posts is also not not said to be ruled out.

BJP leader from Uttarakhand Bhagat Singh Koshiyari met Bhagwat on Sunday while his rival and former Chief Minister B C Khanduri, who was removed after the Lok Sabha debacle, had met the RSS chief on Saturday. Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Kalraj Mishra also met Bhagwat.

While Bhagwat leaves for Haridwar at the end of his Delhi visit, discussions are expected to be carried on among the BJP leaders in the next few days.