Expelled BJP MP wanted to quit before trust vote

Fri, Jul 25 01:00 AM

CONDEMNING THE BJP for going with BSP supremo Mayawati on the nuclear deal, expelled BJP MP from Balrampur Braj Bhusan Saran Singh said he "openly and wilfully" violated the party whip. The BJP expelled the MP for voting in favour of the UPA government during the trust vote.

Talking to HT from Delhi on phone, the MP said he voted knowing fully well that it would lead to his sacking from the party and also losing membership. "I met Rajnath Singh last week and argued with him that the BJP should vote in favour of the government as it was not against the nuclear deal but he was adamant," he said.

He added he had gone with his resignation letter in his pocket but Singh did not give him any opportunity to submit the same. Praising Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh, who were, in his opinion, the only leaders who were fighting with Mayawati's whimsical and dictatorial rule in Uttar Pradesh, Singh said his party failed even to enact the "drama" of levelling bribe charges against Amar Singh and the entire thign boomeranged.

Refusing to disclose his next Lok Sabha constituency, Singh said he was confident of winning from "anywhere in Uttar Pradesh" as he was aware of ground realities and had been close to the common man. Singh, a history sheeter of Gonda with 40 criminal cases against him, first won the Lok Sabha election from Gonda on a BJP ticket in 1991 and since then he never looked back and touched new heights in the political as well as in crime circles.

The BJP, however, denied him ticket in 1996 Parliament elections following his conviction in a criminal case and his wife Ketki Singh was fielded by the BJP from the same constituency and won. Braj Bhusan again contested on the BJP ticket and won in 1999 from the same constituency.

RECOMMEND THIS STORY