Guna: Voices of dissidence grew louder
in the BJP today with a senior leader offering to resign after
cornering the party leadership over a host of issues,
including Nitin Gadkari's recent remark against Congress and
the re-induction of Jaswant Singh.
"I do not think it is possible for me to continue in a
party which has Gadkari as its President," Laxman Singh, a
former BJP MP and brother of senior Congress leader Digvijay
Singh, said.
Hitting out at Gadkari for "lacking political
experience," Singh told reporters at Aawan that he had served
the BJP "selflessly" in last five years, but in the present
political atmosphere it was not possible for him to remain in
it.
Singh said he was prepared to work with his elder brother
Digvijay.
The BJP leader said it appeared that the BJP had lost its
way on the Jinnah issue and that it was not right to bring
back Jaswant Singh into the party fold.
He also sought clarification from the party leadership
over nominating a prominent lawyer, who defended Parliament
attack convict Afzal Guru, to the Rajya Sabha.
On Sunday, senior BJP leader M M Joshi had advised
Gadkari to use proper language and said that there should not
be criticism at personal level in politics.
"Even strong criticism can be said in appropriate
words," former BJP President and former Union Minister Murli
Manohar Joshi had told reporters in Varanasi.
Taunting the Congress over the delay in hanging Afzal
Guru, Gadkari had asked the party whether the Parliament
attack death row convict was its "son-in-law".
In comments that stoked a controversy, Gadkari thundered
at a BJP rally in Dehra Dun on July 8 asking Congress leaders
"Is Afzal Guru the son-in-law of Congress? Have you(Congress)
given your daughter to him(Afzal). Why is he being given
special treatment?"
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, July 13, 2010, 23:35