Rajnath Singh calls on Vajpayee

New Delhi, Apr 12 (UNI) BJP President Rajnath Singh today said former Deputy Prime Minister and senior party leader L K Advani had been misquoted on his statement about the release of three terrorists in exchange for the release of passengers of an Indian Airlines flight which was hijacked to Kandahar in 1999.

Mr Singh was talking to newspersons after meeting former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee whom he apprised of his ongoing "Bharat Suraksha Yatra." "Mr Advani has not said so, he has been misquoted and his statement misinterpreted," he said, when his attention was drawn to the senior leader's statement during his yatra that he was not in favouring of releasing the terrorists and the then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had only carried out the decision of the Government.

Mr Singh had yesterday cut short his yatra to visit the site of the fire tragedy in Meerut where at least 32 people had died and hundreds were injured.

The BJP president who flew back this evening to resume his yatra from Ranchi, Jharkhand from tomorrow, said he had apprised Mr Vajpayee of the feedback he got during the yatra.

Earlier, he held a meeting with senior party leaders--Ms Sushma Swaraj, Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mr Sanjay Joshi and discussed the Yatra plans and arrangements.

UNI/KAS MSJ RS1916