Tuesday, May 17 2005 18:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: With its vice-president Babulal Marandi showing his strength at a meeting attended among others by 18 MLAs protesting the appointment of Yadunath Pandey as Jharkhand, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief, the party's central leadership today (May 17, 2005) indicated willingness to discuss the issue with him and "redress grievances".

"They are our legislators. They have some grievances and pain. Marandi is a senior leader and other senior leaders are constantly in touch with them. We are confident the problem will be sorted out soon", party spokesman Prakash Javadekar said in New Delhi.

Asked who in the party was in touch with Marandi since he had declined to meet general secretary (Organisation) Sanjay Joshi and State Incharge Rajnath Singh, Javadekar said, "we don't want to solve our problems through the media".

He also declined to comment whether the party would "roll back" its decision to appoint Pandey.

In Ranchi, Marandi had said that he was ready to meet the party's top brass to discuss the issue.

BJP sources in New Delhi also expressed optimism that he would attend the party's central office bearers meeting scheduled for May 23.