A day after the BJP was routed out in the MCD elections, majority of party MPs from the Capital blamed it on Centre's "anti-people" Budget that gave no relief to the middle class while former Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma on Thursday resigned as party's vice president owning moral responsibility for debacle.
Verma, BJP MP from outer Delhi constituuency, submitted his resignation to party President Jana Krishnamurthy owning moral responsibility to the debacle in the MCD polls.
"I will not take the resignation back," he said in reply to a question that whether this move was aimed at building up pressure to seek resignation of BJP's local unit office bearers including its President Mange Ram Garg.
The former chief minister, who also resigned from the election committee of the party, was apparrently peeved over the allegations made by Garg that it was the Centre and the Sahib Singh Varma-Madan Lal Khurana factionalism which were responsible for the debacle. BJP managed only 16 seats in the 134 member council with Congress winning a majority with 108 seats.
Another party Vice President M L Khurana said he was terribly shocked by the civic poll results and cited the CNG issue and budgetary proposals as reasons for the debacle.
The former Delhi chief minister said he had cautioned the party against the manner in which the CNG and the small industries' issues were handled by it.
Vijay Kumar Malhotra, MP while appealing for self introspection, said the middle-class did not come out to vote because of the recent Budget. Bureau Report