Saffron parivar discusses strategy to tone up BJP

NEW DELHI: In an apparent attempt to stem the saffron party's decline and draw up a strategy to revive its fortunes, top RSS and BJP leaders on Thursday held a day-long close brainstorming session at former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence here.

The high-level closed door meeting attended by RSS General Secretary Mohan Bhagwat and the three Joint General Secretaries Madan Das Devi, Suresh Soni and Bhayyaji Joshi and senior BJP leaders including Vajpayee, L K Advani, Rajnath Singh and Sanjay Joshi, comes amidst intra-party differences in many states and ahead of the crucial Assembly polls in some states early next year.

Besides insisting on a return to ideology, RSS functionaries are understood to have expressed their concern over the exit of several 'hardcore' leaders such as Uma Bharti and Babulal Marandi from the party, which they said had a demoralising effect on the cadres apart from denting the party's image, party sources said.

The need for a coordinated strategy in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh which goes to polls early next year is also understood to have figured at the meeting.