General secretary Arun Jaitley’s resignation after Hazaribagh MP Yashwant Sinha quit all party posts has deepened the crises in the BJP.
General secretary Arun Jaitley’s resignation after Hazaribagh MP Yashwant Sinha quit all party posts has deepened the crises in the BJP.
Jaitley’s papers were accepted on Tuesday, a week after he submitted them to party president Rajnath Singh and left for London.
BJP leaders claimed the resignation was in line with the party’s one person-one post policy, but Jaitley’s detractors questioned its timing ahead of the June 20-21 national executive. The resignation is being viewed as a move by the LK Advani camp to dilute a possible onslaught by Jaitley-baiters, as also to keep at bay leaders inimical to this group.
It is also being viewed by BJP sections as a countermove by Advani-backers to keep control of the party in view of the coming organisational elections. They felt the move was to ensure Jaitley remained firmly saddled as leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha that could give him an edge to lay claim to the party president’s post later this year.
Jaitley had become the target of sharp attacks by a number of senior leaders post his elevation in the Rajya Sabha after former foreign minister Jaswant Singh vacated the post following his election to the Lok Sabha. Party insiders said the resignation could be to save Jaitley’s Rajya Sabha post.
The lawyer-turned-politician was the BJP’s top strategist in the Lok Sabha election and attracted a lot of flak after its poor show.
“Jaitley said he was resigning from the post of general secretary under the one man-one post rule of the party after his appointment as leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha,” Rajnath said.
The president met Advani on Tuesday and discussed modalities for smooth conduct of the national executive. But that won’t be easy, with former BJP chief MM Joshi questioning his gag order. Drawing a parallel with his own tenure as the party chief, Joshi said there was total freedom of speech in his time.
Exploiting the RSS ire against some BJP leaders for questioning the party’s Hindutava agenda, he said, “Hindutava has been described by the Supreme Court as a way of life. Out party’s ideological roots are in this very ancient way of life, which we cannot give up because our electoral performance was not up to the mark.”
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