Verma gets the handshake, Khurana the cold shoulder

Ending the two-month-old power struggle in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership on Thursday decided that Sahib Singh Verma will continue as chief minister.

With this, former chief minister Madan Lal Khurana's chances of regaining the CM-ship this term has fallen to zilch. Khurana vacated the office when the Central Bureau of Investigation chargesheeted him in the Jain hawala case. Subsequently, the Delhi high court had acquitted him, after which he had been clamouring for his old post.

BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan said the party will review the position at the time of the next Lok Sabha or assembly elections, "whichever is earlier.''

The BJP's parliamentary board had on July 25 left the decision whether to replace Verma with Khurana to party veterans L K Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. At Thursday's meeting, the leaders consulted Verma, Khurana, Delhi unit president Kidar Nath Sahani and K L Sharma, who is in charge of Delhi affairs in the BJP, before arriving at the decision.

Verma said the decision had ended a period of uncertainty and his government would now devote its full energies to administration.

''I believe the controversy has now been resolved for good,'' a relaxed Verma told journalists, "Khurana is a senior leader and vice-president of the party and his political future is very bright.'' He described the drawn-out fight between him and Khurana as 'part of politics.'

Verma's government has one more year in office before the assembly elections, due in October or November next year.

UNI