Seeking to put to an end speculations about a cold war between him and party President Rajnath Singh, senior leader Arun Jaitley on Wednesday attributed the party chief's absence at a protest rally in New Delhi on the Bofors issue to a 'communication gap' and his absence from a subsequent press conference to 'stomach infection'.
"There was a communication gap between the party president and the city unit of the party. He was also busy preparing his speech for the January 20 National Council meeting besides preparing the list of office bearers and meeting RSS and Karnataka leaders," Jaitley told reporters when asked about Rajnath's absence from Tuesday's demonstration.
The absence of both leaders at separate functions had fuelled speculation among the organization's second generation leaders. Jaitley had announced at a press conference on Monday that Rajnath will be leading the party's countrywide protests against the United Progressive Alliance government's 'bungling' in the Quattrochhi case. But the latter did not turn up though he was present at the party headquarters, located close to the protest venue.
Some party leaders said he did not want to lead the 'small number of protesters' that the city unit had been able to gather. Jaitley too left the party office minutes before a press conference he was scheduled to address saying he was 'not feeling well,' fuelling speculations that he was miffed over Rajnath's decision to skip the meeting.
Earlier, some leaders had expressed reservation over the party chief not being given a seat in the dais at the 1000th moon-sighting programme organised for former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by party leader Pramod Mahajan in New Delhi last week.
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