Former Indian Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, an Atal Bihari Vajpayee confidante, is a tall figure in the saffron parivar.

So, his meeting with the expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh is bound to raise eyebrows, especially within the party, which knows best the significance of this meeting.

"The way Jaswant was expelled from the party was wrong, because he was such a senior leader of the party," Shekhawat said after the meeting.

Shekhawat has signalled that discontent against the current BJP leadership hasn't ended. And that leaders close to Vajpayee, now marginalised by Advani, will keep alive the accountability issue first raised by Jaswant.

The meeting of the heartbroken Rajasthani Rajputs has hurt the BJP. Behind the scenes its leaders said both came together to work out a political future for their sons, but on record the party struggled to explain.

"Jaswant is no more in the BJP and Shekhawat is an elder," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

While battling dissent within the party, the BJP's political slide is getting visible. It had to end alliance talks with Bhajan Lal's party in Haryana after being told to settle for less seats.

Now top leaders are worried that if the election results of the three states in October go against the party, the attacks will intensify the war within.