‘I wasn’t even in Delhi, so how can I leak my letter?’

Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha fired a fresh salvo on Monday when he questioned how his letter and details of the party’s national executive meeting were leaked to the media. Sinha, who returned to Delhi on Monday, also said he had never breached party discipline.

Till late evening there was no word from the BJP on the issues Sinha raised. Earlier, the BJP core group met at LK Advani’s house to review the upshot of the discussions at the party’s national executive meet and consider the action required to be taken. They reportedly discussed the trouble in the party’s Uttarakhand unit, though no decision was taken. By evening, the BJP had Sinha raising questions afresh.

Resentful at insinuations that he was hankering after posts, Sinha said such things were beneath him. “Yashwant Sinha was never so small and will never be so small as to run after a post,” Sinha said. He was responding to the allegation that his resignation was motivated by his desire to get a bigger post in the party.

Sinha had resigned from all party posts, saying he was setting a lead for others to follow on grounds of collective responsibility for poll debacle. In a letter to party president Rajnath Singh, copies of which were sent to core group members, he had raised questions over the way the party was functioning. The letter got to the media and Sinha was blamed for the leak.

Sinha said that when the letter was leaked, he was not in Delhi. “I was in Hazaribagh when the meeting was taking place. How I can leak the letter?” he asked. “If somebody says I have leaked it, I will protest,” he said.

“In fact, I got to know about acceptance of my resignation through the media. I did not receive any communication from the party in writing. I do not mind, because I had sent it for that (for acceptance),” Sinha said.

In the same vein, he wondered how everything discussed at the BJP national executive was leaked to the media. Sinha said how is it that he knows who said what and what transpired during the two-day meet even though he was not present there, indicating that party people have leaked the internal information to the media. “Where is the party discipline in all this? It should be examined,” he said.

“We have to admit that the media today is all pervasive and omnipresent,” Sinha said. “I have spent my entire life in strict discipline and have never broken the party rules,” Sinha said, adding that he would work to strengthen the party.

He also refuted criticism in the party national executive that he was not a grassroots leader, saying he has won thrice from Hazaribagh Lok Sabha constituency. Taking a dig at his critics for calling him a hawai neta (leader without roots), Sinha said he could manage a crowd of 10,000 anytime in the national capital.