Rahul Mahajan meets leaders at BJP meet

New Delhi, May 29: Rahul, son of late BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan, was today present at the two-day National Executive to express gratitude of his family members to the party leaders who passed a resolution hailing his father's services to the BJP.

''Rahul expressed his desire to meet the members and thank them personally for passing a resolution commending his father's services to the BJP. He was invited to meet them during lunch,'' BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said, adding that he did not attend the Executive as he is not a member.

No special meaning should be read into it, he stressed.

The clarification comes in the wake of reports that the party was attempting to nominate Pramod Mahajan's wife Rekha or son Rahul to the Rajya Sabha, as a consensus candidate, from the seat left vacant by Mahajan. The move came to naught because the Congress did not accept the suggestion.

Incidentally, this Executive is the first one in which Mahajan is not present. The late leader had attended all party executives, ever since the birth of the BJP in Mumbai in 1980. He played an important role in the Silver Jubilee Plenary cum Executive, held at Mumbai in December last year, which saw the change of leadership from Mr L K Advani to Rajnath Singh.

UNI