Monday, July 18 2005 15:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: BJP today (July 18, 2005) announced the postponement of its upcoming National Executive meeting in Chennai till mid-September even as it asserted that L K Advani would continue both as party President and Leader of Opposition for the time being.

After an hour-long meeting of the party's General Secretaries and Parliamentary Party leaders at former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters here that the meeting has been postponed in view of the preparations for the coming monsoon session of Parliament beginning July 24.

The Executive would now be held from September 16-18 in Chennai.

A day after party President L K Advani appeared to have got a reprieve for the time being to step down as party President following hectic parleys with the RSS top brass, Malhotra also said, "he would remain both our President and Leader of Opposition during the session".

The party has also called a meeting of its office bearers here on July 23 to endorse the resolutions to be adopted at the National Executive meeting. The office bearers meeting would be followed by a meeting of NDA leaders at Vajpayee's residence on July 24, he said.

Today's meeting was also attended by Advani, Jaswant Singh, M Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj, Anant Kumar, Om Mathur, Pramod Mahajan, Sanjay Joshi and S S Ahluwalia.

Malhotra said it was decided at the meeting that the party would play an agrresive role in Parliament and it has already given notices to raise 50 issues of "public concern".

"With the session beginning on July 25 and in view of the large number of issues to be taken up, we had to take a decision to postpone the national executive meeting", he said.

The BJP leader said the party would raise issues including the plight of the poor, the hike in petrol and diesel prices, the terrorist attack on Ayodhya, reservation for Muslims, the Fatwas issued in religious matters (Imrana) and "attempts to nullify the IMDT Act".

The party would also raise the issue of increased infiltration from Bangladesh, the praise of the British Raj by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and foreign policy issues, he said.

"Besides the nearly 50 issues for which notices have been given, the NDA meeting would also discuss floor coordination with parties like Telugu Desam Party, he said.

The party would also raise the issue of increased infiltration from Bangladesh, the praise of the British Raj by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and foreign policy issues, he said.

"Besides the nearly 50 issues for which notices have been given, the NDA meeting would also discuss floor coordination with parties like Telugu Desam Party, he said.