President Pranab Mukherjee called up BJP leader LK Advani on Thursday to apologise for snubbing BJP leaders at his ‘at home’. He told Advani that there was no attempt to show any disrespect and the matter was just an oversight on the part of the authorities, TV channels reported.
According to sources, say that senior leaders LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Jaitley were not accommodated a seat in the special enclosure in Mugal Gardens, but were made to stand in a queue formation— while UPAII Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and senior ministers were given seats to chat with the President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Pranab told Advani that the issue would be looked into and that the incident was a breach in protocol, according to sources.
This is the second consecutive occasion at Rashtrapati Bhavan that Advani was ‘ill-treated’.
LK Advani.
At the vice president’s swearing in ceremony, Advani was given a fourth row seat. A source says that Wednesday’s incident indicates that the UPA wants to ‘dump’ the National Democratic Alliance. Insiders in the BJP refuse to buy the theory that after Advani termed the UPAII as illegitimate, such discourtesy has begun, Rediff News reported.
