Khanduri letter, Raje's defiance intensify crisis

The pot of troubles for the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued to boil today with sudden surfacing of a letter written by former Uttrakhand chief minister B C Khanduri questioning his removal, and Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan keeping everyone guessing as to whether she would resign as the leader of the Opposition in that state.

Khanduri’s letter, written in the first week of August to party President Rajnath Singh, questioned the BJP’s decision to sack him in July after it he was held responsible for the party’s Lok Sabha debacle in the hill state.

However, it surfaced at a time when the party is struggling to straddle through a mine of controversies — the expulsion of Jaswant Singh, Sudheendera Kulkarni’s resignation and angry remarks by Arun Shourie against the party and leaders — speaks volumes about the rift.

His argument is same as that of Raje, who, in spite of being warned by the party not to hold the meeting of the BJP Legislative Party in Jaipur, went ahead with it. Raje had asked party leaders in Delhi as to why she was only being asked to resign for the poll defeat.

Jaswant not to quit PAC
To the chagrin of the BJP, Jaswant Singh, who was expelled last week for his controversial book on Mohammad Ali Jinnah, has said he would not resign from the post of chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.

The BJP had nominated Singh to the presitigous post. Singh told reporters he would continue to serve as PAC chief and did not intend to resign.

BJP leadership was hoping that Singh would quit the post on his own and save the party from further embarrassment. Party sources said they were unlikely to seek his removal from the post since, according to rules, it could not be done.