Saturday, November 19 2005 15:09 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Breaking ice, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief K S Sudarshan yesterday (Nov 18, 2005) met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President L K Advani and re-opened the clogged communication channels between the two organisations in the run up to the change of leadership in the saffron party next month.

A day after his one to one luncheon meeting with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the RSS Chief spent about 90 minutes with Advani over lunch at the latter's residence, capping months of cold war between the two, which began with the Sarsanghchalak advocating passing on the party baton to the younger generation in the party.

While announcing his plans to step down at the party's Chennai national executive in September, Advani had fired a salvo against RSS saying there was a perception that the Sangh fountainhead was 'remote controlling' the party and interfering in its day to day functioning to the detriment of BJP.

RSS General Secretary Mohan Bhagwat had last month said in Chitrakoot that both the organisations would discuss the issue.

Today also saw Bhagwat calling on Vajpayee. Senior party leader and Sangh favourite Murli Manohar Joshi was also present at the meeting.

Party General Secretaries Sanjay Joshi and Pramod Mahajan, besides Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, also called on the Sangh top brass amidst speculation that the RSS held 'preliminary discussions' with them on a successor to Advani.

While RSS spokesman officially maintained that all the meetings over the last two days were informal in nature and the leadership issue did not figure in the discussions, sources said after months of 'indirect communications,' the meetings served to 'break the ice' ahead of the leadership change in BJP.