NEW DELHI: With fissures in the party coming out in the open, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday sought to crack down on dissension even as senior leader Yashwant Sinha quit as the party’s national vice-president urging for reconstitution of the party following its drubbing in the parliamentary elections.
BJP chief Rajnath Singh yesterday asked leaders to “refrain” from voicing their criticism of one another in the public domain and said those breaching the directive would invite “disciplinary action.”
He was addressing the media here after senior leaders Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Jaitley and Sudheendra Kulkarni, in thinly veiled references, blamed the party leadership for the poor showing in the elections.
The BJP won just 116 seats this time, down from 138 in 2004.
Singh said: “Statements by different leaders in the media have created an impression that the party leadership is in disarray and is not analyzing the reasons for defeat. This is far from truth. The BJP leadership stands united...”
The BJP chief said the “party leadership should refrain from sharing any view outside the party forum such as media or share any information that might create a negative image of the party.”
Failing to adhere to the directive would invite “disciplinary action,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sinha, who was in Jharkhand, faxed his resignation letter to Singh, party sources said.
Sinha, foreign minister in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, yesterday refused to speak to media on the issue, saying: “I do not want to talk about it.”
Sinha in the past had attacked senior leader L.K. Advani over the Jinnah episode.He won from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand in the just-concluded elections.
— With input from agencies
