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Bhandari wants Advani to apologise

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The meeting between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Bihar Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari failed to break the impasse over Bhandari's decision to resign.

Senior BJP politicians told Rediff On The NeT that the prime minister had requested Bhandari to continue in his post and put an end to the controversy.

But Bhandari wants an apology from Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani.

Meanwhile, a piquant situation prevails in Bihar. Bhandari left for the capital in a huff yesterday after Advani announced that the government plans to replace him with an apolitical administrator.

Already, many BJP politicians have arrived in Delhi from Patna to persuade the central leadership not to shift Bhandari.

Accosted by reporters after his meeting with the prime minister, Bhandari said he had not yet decided his next step.

But he made it clear that he was hurt by Advani's announcement that he would be shifted out of Patna.

Bhandari, who is staying at the Kalkaji residence of former Delhi minister Poornima Sethi, was visited by former chief minister Sushma Swaraj, who tried to persuade him to break the deadlock in the interests of the party and the government.

Others who spoke to Bhandari on telephone included BJP vice-president K Jana Krishnamurthy and RSS general secretary H V Seshadri.

Bhandari told all of them that he was hurt and humiliated by Advani's unexpected remark.

RELATED REPORT:
Advani-Bhandari rift goes back a long way

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