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Krishnamurthy overruled PM on Modi resignation

Sheela Bhatt in Panaji

On Friday evening Atal Bihari Vajpayee must have realised that it is not enough to be the prime minister of India.

Ever since riots following the Godhra carnage shook Gujarat, it was an open secret that Vajpayee wanted Narendra Modi to own moral responsibility and step down as the chief minister.

But when the crunch time came, Vajpayee found his own partymen deserting him.

A top Bharatiya Janata Party leader speaking to rediff.com said, "When Modi forwarded his resignation to Vajpayee, the PM said 'Istifa dete hai to le lena chahiye. Assembly dissolve karke aage dekhenge (If he is resigning we should accept his resignation. We should think further after dissolving the assembly)."

But the prime minister found too few takers for his line.

Party president Jana Krishnamurthy said, "If we accept the resignation, Congressmen will claim that it's due to their demand that we buckled."

Krishnamurthy insisted that Modi must not resign. And he told the meeting, "I am rejecting Modi's offer to resign."

A BJP source said, "It was a well-played drama. Even the office-bearers of the party who met in the morning were not aware of it. Law Minister Arun Jaitley played an important role to save his friend Modi."

He added, "The invisible hand of RSS saved Modi, everyone accepted Jana's verdict. There was no discussion on the Gujarat carnage, the police's role, plight of the victims or about the communal divide. Before they could discuss anything Modi's resignation offer was rejected."

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