Press Trust of India / Shimla Aug 19, 2009, 12:58 IST
Jaswant Singh, whose book eulogising Mohd Ali Jinnah has come under attack from BJP and the sangh parivar, was today expelled from the BJP.
The decision to expel Singh, a Lok Sabha member and a former Union Minister, was taken at the Parliamentary Board of the party which met here during the opening session of the three-day brainstorming session of the top leaders here.
BJP President Rajnath Singh, who had yesterday issued a statement totally distancing the party from Jaswant Singh's book "Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence", announced the decision to the media here.
"I had issued a statement yesterday that the party fully dissociates itself from the contents of the book. Today I put up the matter before the Parliamentary Board which decided to end his primary membership.
"So he has been expelled. From now now onwards he will not not be a member of any body of the party or be an office bearer," he said on the expulsion of the 71-year-old party veteran.
Rajnath Singh said yesterday he had told Jaswant Singh not not to come to Shimla for participating in the 'chintan baithak'.
Jaswant Singh has been having an uneasy relationship with the party leadership ever since the Lok Sabha elections on which he had circulated a note demanding thorough discussion on the debacle.
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