BJP's 'chintan baithak' to kickstart today

SHIMLA: Top leaders of BJP will assemble on Wednesday for a three-day brainstorming conclave aimed at chalking out future course of action for the party, taking lessons from the severe drubbing suffered in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

At the closed-door 'chintan baithak' (introspection meeting), the party leadership is expected to look into the reasons for the poll debacle on the basis of the report prepared by the three-member Bal Apte committee.

The meeting, to be attended by about 25 top BJP leaders including L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, is taking place in the shadow of the controversy surrounding senior leader Jaswant Singh's book on M A Jinnah in which the former External Affairs Minister has praised the Pakistan founder.

The BJP has already distanced itself from Jaswant's observations that Jinnah was not responsible for partition, with the party chief saying the role played by Jinnah in division of India cannot be wished away.

Jaswant will be participating in the conclave and is likely to raise some uncomfortable questions. He had earlier told the party top brass that there should be a relation between performance and reward, apparently voicing unhappiness over appointment of chief election strategist Arun Jaitley as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha soon after the BJP poll defeat.