The BJP's Delhi unit had been preparing for the rally for over a month. But the date and the venue had to be changed at the last moment. In fact, state party chief Mange Ram Garg and the campaign committee chairman Vijay Kumar Malhotra went visiting the venue today afternoon, just two days before the rally.

With factional politics at its peak and the Punjabi Mahasangh following the Jat and the Vaishya communities in taking up the cause of their leader, the state party seemed to be in a quandary.

The campaign committee chairman who is known to be close to Khurana was in difficulty explaining Khurana's ambivalent position vis-a-vis Sahib Singh Verma's induction into the Cabinet.

And Malhotra had to admit that Khurana may not be present at the rally. ``He has a prior engagement in Sarnath for the Buddha festival. Lot of foreigners have already come for it. But a special plane is being arranged to fly him,'' he said, trying to defend Khurana.