RJD leader Rabri Devi and her son Tej Pratap attend a public meeting after filing her nomination at Sonepur. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Oct. 9: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a damage-control exercise today, a day after its state unit president C.P. Thakur resigned from the party post.

Thakur was called to Delhi to discuss the matter with the party’s central leadership.

Just before catching a flight to Delhi this afternoon, Thakur hinted that he might take his resignation back. “I have put my points before the central leadership and if they promise to restore the internal democracy in the party’s Bihar unit, I may think in terms of taking back my resignation,” he told The Telegraph.

Though his temper appeared to have cooled down, Thakur, for the first time, took the name of the leader whom he held responsible for bringing the situation to such a passé.

“Sushil Kumar Modi is treating the party as his fiefdom. I felt humiliated at least on a dozen occasions after assuming the office of party state unit president six months back but I kept quiet. When things went beyond tolerable limits, I decided to quit the post and apprised the central leadership about the reasons behind my decision,” he said.

Asked about the likely time when he would announce his decision to take back his resignation, Thakur said, “If the central leaders accept my demand, the announcement may be made by today evening or when I come back from Delhi tomorrow.”

Former president of BJP Bihar unit and convener of party election campaign committee Radha Mohan Singh said: “Our central leaders are capable of solving such problems and nothing much should be read in what has taken place in the past 24 hours.”

Another senior BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who was fuming about the lack of internal democracy in the party a day earlier and had expressed solidarity with Thakur, too, embarked upon the damage-control exercise after he had telephonic talks with the central leadership on Saturday.

“Though personally I am opposed to handing over few seats (read Digha and Kuchaikot) to alliance partner JD(U), but being a disciplined worker I would abide by the decisions that has been taken by the party,” Choubey said, adding, “I am also opposed to the recent trend of giving tickets to outsiders joining the party at the time of elections and has apprised central leadership about my stand on this issue.”

The public health and engineering department minister, however, restrained from taking names when asked about the leaders whom he held responsible for this impasse.

“All of us are members of the party and it is our joint responsibility to solve the problems that come in the way of its democratic functioning,” he said.

Choubey claimed that despite some ideological differences, the alliance between the BJP and the JD(U) was rock solid and the alliance would register emphatic win the assembly polls. �The opposition parties (read RJD-LJP combine) should stop day dreaming about any crack in the alliance and voters of the state would teach them a lesson in Bihar elections,� he said.

Choubey also announced that party vice president Hrishanker Sharma, who had tendered resignation from his post withdrew his resignation today.

Amid mellowed tempers there are still few leaders of BJP who appeared quite dissatisfied with the functioning of the party state unit. BJP MLC Ramkishore Singh is one such soul who is adamant on not taking back his resignation from the post of president of education cell.

�The state leadership has given ticket to one criminal from Arwal seat despite the fact that I was a natural claimant for this seat. The central leadership look into the issue else I would not withdraw my resignation,� he said.

A former president of Bihar BJP unit Gopal Narayan Singh too appeared deeply hurt by the way things were going on the party. �Central leadership should take stringent step to reign in leaders like Sushil Modi for restoring democracy inside the party,� he said.

Singh also claimed that breaking the tradition of giving preference to party workers in giving tickets, some of the party leaders ensured that those coming from other parties got tickets.