A meeting of the office-bearers to finalise the agenda for the national executive on Friday evening witnessed high drama as senior leader Jaswant Singh tried to circulate Shourie's letter but was stopped from doing so by his other senior party colleagues.
Shourie, in his letter to party chief Rajnath Singh, is believed to have asked why the party was shying away from an open assessment of the electoral debacle and demanded transparency in the functioning of the party.
Shourie is believed to have raised questions about accountability in the party and the decision-making structure and expressed the view that "conspirators" have taken over the party.
He also wanted circulation of letters written by Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh in the wake of the election defeat for discussion by members of the national executive.
Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha had earlier written letters to party president Rajnath Singh demanding an open discussion on the party's poll defeat. Sinha had even resigned from all party posts.
Arun Jaitley and Yashwant Sinha did not attend the meeting as both had ceased to be part of the committee which set the agenda.
Others who attended the meeting included senior leaders like Sushma Swaraj, Anant Kumar and M Venkaia Naidu.
Briefing mediapersons about the deliberations, party spokesman Prakash Javadekar said that since BJP believed in the internal democracy, every suggestion would be carefully listed to irrespective of who wrote it.
"Bal Apte has been appointed to screen all the letters and present them during the national executive, which begins on Saturday," Javadekar said.
While accepting the verdict of the people with humility party president Rajnath said, "The recent statements and interaction of some our party leaders on various media platforms appear to have created an impression in some quarters that the party's leadership is in disarray and is not analysing the reasons behind the defeat. This is far from the truth. The BJP leadership stands united and is already in the process of analysing the outcome of the results to assess why the party could not get the mandate it expected."
"This obviously has to be an exhaustive and collective exercise and it has already begun at various levels. The entire process will culminate in a detailed Chintan Baithak after the conclusion of this session of Parliament in the month of August," he added.
"As the president of the party, I have to say that it has been decided that henceforth, all party leaders and functionaries should refrain from formally or informally sharing any views or inputs outside the party forums such as the media or any other platform, about the internal deliberations within the party or share any information that might negatively impact the image of the party, failing which they will invite disciplinary proceedings against themselves," he warned.
Additional reportage: PTI
