NEW DELHI, July 3: A senior aide of Indian opposition leader Lal Kishan Advani, assumed to be the author of a new approach by Indian politicians towards the Quaid-i-Azam, resigned as the national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday.

Mr Sudheendra Kulkarni had served as the speech writer of former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and was working as Mr Advani’s political secretary when the Jinnah controversy erupted.

While Mr Advani too had offered to quit after he was criticised for describing Mr Mohammed Ali Jinnah as a secular leader, he found himself accepting Mr Kulkarni’s resignation nevertheless.

Mr Kulkarni said to be the author of Mr Vajpayee’s conciliatory musing towards Pakistan from his Komarakom retreat in Kerala, was also under fire for writing a document earlierthis year in which he asked the BJP to abandon hardcore Hindutva.

Besides, Mr Kulkarni had written to Mr Advani recently saying the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh should not micro manage the affairs of the BJP.

Mr Advani’s own future is being discussed in Surat in Gujarat, where the RSS is in the middle of a three-day meeting.