While rumours about the PM's ill health have been circulating for some time now, a prominently-displayed front page article in a local-cum-international newspaper recently evoked sharp reactions from BJP. The party has demanded an apology and front-page clarification and threatened that otherwise it would take the matter to the Press Council.

Describing the report as ``baseless, mischievous and politically motivated'', BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu asserted that Vajpayee was in good health and had no plans to go to the US for treatment.

Naidu said that the mischievous report was based on a ``bogus leak by a BJP-baiter who makes statements and then withdraws them''. He drew attention to similar charges by Janata Party president Subramanain Swamy against AIADMK chiefJayalalitha to the Jain Commission, which he later retracted.

PMO sources said today that Vajpayee had indeed gone to the Sitaram Bhartia Institute for tests, as claimed by the article. But that was because all prime ministers are required to undergo a thorough medical check up to provide a full health profile. It may be recalled that Vajpayee had a kidney removed some years earlier.

While most of the tests were conducted at AIIMS, Vajpayee's personal physician is learnt to have recommended that some be done at the Sitaram Bhartia Institute. Vajpayee had visited the institute for the tests in May this year and has not been there since, PMO officials said.

Administrator of the Institute Suprio Mukherjee denied that the PM was undergoing any treatment for the above mentioned ailment. However, he admitted that Vajpayee had visited the Institute for some test in May. ``All I can say is that the PM had come to the hospital for a test. I cannot reveal what test,'' Mukherjee said.

Sources among top oncologysurgeons of the country said that Vajpayee had undergone treatment for cancer of the kidney at the Cancer Centre of Boston five years ago. The PM was reportedly cured of the cancer, and the ailment is said to be under control.