Sidelined elders of the party - LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha - have stepped in and indicated that Kirti Azad is not alone
The ruling BJP's move to suspend its lawmaker Kirti Azad for targeting Arun Jaitley over allegations of corruption in Delhi's cricket body DDCA threatens to trigger yet another power tussle in the party.
Sidelined elders of the party - LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha - have stepped in and indicated that Kirti Azad is not alone and the party leadership cannot assume that with his suspension the issue rests.
Mr Azad, a former cricketer, was suspended on Wednesday after he accused Mr Jaitley of presiding over corruption in the DDCA or Delhi and District Cricket Association when he headed it in the past.
After the party acted against him, Mr Azad said that Margdarshak Mandal or the panel of mentors should step in to fight for him.
Two members of that panel, Mr Advani and Mr Joshi, along with Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha, held a meeting yesterday and later decided to meet Mr Azad.
"The senior leaders have decided to intervene in the interest of the party. I also want Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and I shall be writing to him soon," Mr Azad said.
But 24 hours after his suspension and his threat to "reveal more", there seems to be a change in strategy.
To prove that despite the suspension he remains a loyal party soldier, Mr Azad is waiting to meet PM Modi once he returns from his trip to Moscow and Kabul. The idea is to take his complaint to the "leader" instead of those who have challenged the leadership.
To maintain pressure on the BJP brass, Mr Azad had initially decided to meet the elders at Mr Joshi's home after he returned from Ahmedabad on Thursday evening.
It was after a phone-call from Mr Advani to Mr Joshi that led to the meeting. Shanta Kumar said differences within the party were not good and the blame-game should end.
Sources close to Mr Joshi, however, dismissed the meeting as a courtesy call.
The group had last met right after the BJP lost the Bihar election and had released a joint statement accusing the leadership of "emasculating" the party.
This time, however, there were no written statements.
"The group felt bad that Mr Azad had been served a suspension notice and not a show cause notice, that too for speaking out against corruption. They felt that the government should have found some way of initiating an enquiry into the affairs of the DDCA to show that it was firm on investigating allegations of corruption rather than cover-up," said a source.
These leaders have decided to raise their concerns at "an appropriate platform". They are expected to rally support for their agenda by trying to reach out to leaders in the BJP who feel that top party leaders including PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah need to ensure a more inclusive and accountable decision-making mechanism.