One more BJP exit Atal,Advanis aide Kulkarni

Admitting that he had come to the painful realisation that he could no longer meaningfully contribute to the BJP....

Admitting that he had come to the painful realisation that he could no longer meaningfully contribute to the BJP,Sudheendra Kulkarni announced today that after 13 years as a full-time party activist during which he worked as a close aide of Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and then led L K Advanis 2009 campiagn he had decided to end my active association with the party.

Citing ideological differences with the BJP as it stands today, Kulkarni said in a signed statement: I shall,however,continue to be its well-wisher.

Kulkarni,incidentally,had stepped down as an office-bearer in 2005 in the wake of Advanis Jinnah controversy and then sent a letter to Advani calling for recasting the RSS-BJP relationship,distancing the party from extremist elements and solving the organisational disarray. These issues have come back to haunt the party after the expulsion of Jaswant Singh in Shimla.

After the election defeat in 2009,Kulkarni had written that the BJP and Sangh Parivar made a strong leader like Advani8230; look weak,helpless and not fully in command, criticised Varun Gandhis speech and underlined how allies had drifted away after the Gujarat riots.

In his statement today,Kulkarni said: I was attracted to the BJP because of twin factors. First was my disillusionment with the Indian communist movement,where I first cut my teeth as a political activist. I found answers to many of my questions in Integral Humanism,the philosophical treatise authored by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya,the ideological guru of the BJP and one of the greatest political thinkers of modern India. The second factor was the inspiring personalities of Shri Advani and Shri Vajpayee,who embodied high ideals.

Kulkarni said that he would now work as an independent activist in public life to promote the ideals of good governance and consensus-building in the national interest.

It was my good fortune and proud privilege to work closely with the two tallest leaders of the party Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Shri L K Advani. I continue to have the highest respect for both. I learnt from them,as also from other senior colleagues in the party,many valuable lessons in political life. I shall forever remain grateful to all of them for the opportunity I had to serve this great party and the rich experience I gained from it, he said.