Differences surfaced within the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday on the move by the telecom regulator TRAI to increase the monthly rental by 11-12 per cent for basic (landline) telephone and reduce the pulse duration for local calls.

A section of the party feels that this could harm its interest in the coming assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chattisgarh as there are a large number of land line users in these states, the sources said.

"After all, there are more land line users compared to cell users and with almost every village having a public call office, it would hit hard the common man," the sources said.

However, some party leaders feel that this was being done to "keep pace with modern technology and the cost of laying cables and getting telephone connections to remote areas is a costly proposition."

Asked for an official comment on the issue party spokesman Arun Jaitley said, "We would not like to say anything on it."