Monday, December 26 2005 14:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Even as L K Advani prepares to step down as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President, either during or after the Party's Silver Jubilee convention beginning here on Wednesday, questions are being raised among some party leaders about his role as Leader of Opposition.

Advani's stand on the cash-for-queries scam, terming it as an act of stupidity and the party's decision to walk out of Lok Sabha when the motion for expulsion of the accused MPs was put to vote has "severely dented the party's image", a very senior leader told sources.

"While we were all unhappy with the procedure adopted, nobody wanted the party to be seen as shielding the corrupt and that was the public perception we ended up creating," the leader, who is also a Member of Parliament, said.

"If corruption is stupidity, then let us all be stupid," he said, adding the party's move also stole the wind out of the sails of its campaign on the Volcker issue.

Some other leaders were also 'baffled' by the party's u-turn on the Constitutional Amendment Bill providing reservation for SCs and STs in private, unaided educational institutions.

"Initially, we took an aggressive stand that we will oppose the Bill if minority institutions were exempted from its purview, but then we ended up supporting it and made a fool of ourselves," another prominent leader said.

"If we had to finally support it, we should not have taken an aggressive stand. It enabled the Congress and the Left to project as if we were against the reservations itself," he said.

Some MPs attending the convention also recalled that the party boycotted almost an entire Parliament session on the issue of 'tainted' ministers, and then Advani realised that it was a mistake and public opinion was turning against the party.

A Rajya Sabha MP said the party also unnecessarily wasted precious Parliamentary time on issues like attitude of the government towards the opposition and the Prime Minister's "insulting behaviour".

"We were seen more as sulking, hyper-sensitive and frustrated by the public at large. Such actions including marching to Rashtrapati Bhavan at the drop of a hat did us no good," he said.

While not out rightly demanding that Advani should step down as LoP also, his critics felt that he should be "more rational, balanced and aware of the public mood" by formulating the party's stand in Parliament.