New Delhi, Nov. 6: The BJP brass went into a huddle this evening to mull over various exit strategies for its president, Nitin Gadkari, after his latest gaffe on Swami Vivekananda provoked the ire of not just the leaders but the cadres and the Sangh brotherhood.

The “likeliest” possibility that could be acceptable to the BJP and the RSS was “coaxing” Gadkari to step down “voluntarily” after Diwali. “The exit must be graceful, honourable and painless,” a source said.

Sources said the other proposal was to let Gadkari last out his tenure until December 19 on the condition that he would not get a second term and he would not campaign in the Gujarat elections.

The expression of choreographed “solidarity” was prompted by an “internal” probe ordered by the RSS. Sangh chief Mohanrao Bhagwat — who picked Gadkari to head the BJP and silently watched his three-year innings marred by financial controversies and dubious inductions into the party — commissioned S. Gurumurthy, a chartered accountant-cum-Sangh ideologue, to conduct the inquiry.

Sources said Bhagwat, who believed his own “prestige” was at stake because of his protégé’s questioned dealings, was convinced that Gadkari must be “defended” till the last.

After a nearly three-hour meeting of the “core” group tonight at the BJP headquarters, Gurumurthy made a “detailed” presentation of his “investigations” into the ghost companies allegedly owned by Gadkari and its curious shareholders.

He had briefed L.K. Advani earlier in the day, which was why the veteran leader didn’t show up at the meeting, according to the BJP’s chief spokesperson, Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Briefing the press on a joint statement issued by Opposition leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, Prasad said there was “no legal or moral wrongdoing” by the party chief and that Gadkari had “no direct or indirect interest” in the Purti group of companies of which he was a director until 14 months ago.

Prasad also appealed to the leaders and workers not to make statements that could negatively impact the BJP. The allusion was to a letter released to the media today by maverick Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani, in which he maintained that his demand for Gadkari’s head was “backed” by seniors Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Shatrughan Sinha. Like him, Jethmalani claimed, they felt Gadkari’s continuance was a “disaster” for the BJP and the country.

Sources said Bhagwat was “upset” with Jethmalani’s fulminations on TV and said there were “reasons to believe” he was being put up by a couple of “senior BJP insiders”. Jethmalani denied the perception, saying he didn’t need a prompter before speaking. But insiders, who joined the dots in the seemingly disjointed scenes in the sequence of events, thought Advani’s, and Narendra Modi’s, “proximity” to the lawyer should be factored in. The buzz stoked the speculation that Advani could possibly take over the BJP but the RSS was dead against the idea.

Over the next two days, the BJP leaders are expected to hold several meetings to decide whether the party should have an interim head and then formally elect a successor to Gadkari in January after he serves out his term.

Many in the BJP think Gadkari should leave before the winter session of Parliament begins on November 22 so that part of the damage inflicted by the exposés and his controversial statement could be undone.

But Gadkari signalled he would not quit without trying. Armed with Gurumurthy’s “clean chit”, he called on virtually every BJP mover and shaker to present his “case”.

However, few were privately persuaded with Gurumurthy’s presentation. For instance, a Rajya Sabha MP of the BJP is believed to have said the Gadkari case was not about “legalities and technicalities” but about perceptions. In the “battle of perceptions”, this leader said, the Congress had “stolen a march” over the BJP.

Gadkari scurried between one leader’s house to another to marshal support. On the Sangh’s nudge, he also put out a statement regretting his Vivekananda comments. “I had absolutely no intention to project Swami Vivekananda in a bad light,” he said.