Jana Krishnamurthy acting BJP chief

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14. The Bharatiya Janata Party today continued to maintain in public that Mr. Bangaru Laxman, its president, was ``innocent,'' but an emergency meeting of the party office- bearers this afternoon decided to accept his resignation ``with immediate effect''.

The unanimous decision at the meeting was that Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi, till now senior vice-president, should ``lead the party'' as acting president, even as Mr. Narendra Modi, general secretary, said Mr. Krishnamurthi would continue in his new position and only the ``formality'' of ratification by the party's national executive and the national council remained.

Although at a meeting of the parliamentary party earlier this morning, the Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, advised party MPs ``not to be defensive'' about the tehelka.com revelations but ``be aggressive,'' almost everyone in the party agrees it will be difficult doing that when Mr. Laxman has been captured live by a camera ``in action''.

Perhaps the party is hoping that by promptly accepting Mr. Laxman's resignation, it can establish itself to be upright and above board.

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