TOI

New Delhi, Mar 17: The rift in the BJP showed no signs of healing on Tuesday with senior leader Arun Jaitley for the second time skipping the central election committee meeting due to the spat with party chief Rajnath Singh.

Jaitley has made it clear to the party leadership that he will not attend the meetings until the appointment of controversial businessman Sudhanshu Mittal as the party's co-incharge to oversee poll preparations in northeastern states is revoked.

L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Venkaiah Naidu and Narendra Modi are among those who are attending the meeting.

The BJP CEC is slated to decide candidates from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh among others.

Sources said that last ditch efforts to placate Arun Jaitley by Venkaiah Naidu have also failed.

Earlier, senior BJP leader L K Advani had attempted to resolve the spat and was helped in his efforts by RSS pointsperson and party's central organisation secretary Ramlal.

Jaitley has been boycotting crucial central election committee meetings, protesting against Mittal's appointment.

A section of the party strongly feels the best way out would be for Mittal to give up the post. Since it would be difficult for Rajnath Singh to roll back the appointment under pressure from Jaitley, "it is better that Mittal himself withdraws himself from the post", a party leader said.

Jaitley considers his protest a legitimate one on "moral" grounds, given the businessman’s controversial image, it is difficult for other party leaders to ask him to step back.