Rao said both the leaders have long ago crossed the party's disciplinary line -- "lakshman rekha", as he put it.
Criticising Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over imposing a "deeply flawed" Goods and Service Tax (GST), Yashwant Sinha yesterday said countrymen can rightly demand he quit for the hardships caused and also felt that he is a "burden" on the people of Gujarat.
Jaitley is a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat.
The BJP views Yashwant Sinha's outbursts against Finance Minister Jaitley as being "purely disgruntled remarks of an individual who seeks some participation in the government and he is not provided for," Rao told PTI.
"So, only out of that disgruntlement -- that he is not being considered for administrative or ministerial position -- he is attacking the Finance Ministry and Arun Jaitley. Otherwise, how does it substantiate that his attack is only coming at election time?" he asked.
"It goes to show there is a devious plot which is unfortunate that they are trapped in. The BJP considers that somebody else is using them," he said.
Rao said if the two leaders were so disturbed and peeved by the way the government is being run, they, being members of the National Executive Council and Yashwant Sinha also being member of "Margdarshak Mandal", should have raised the issues at party forums, which gives them many opportunities to do so.
Noting that the two are very senior leaders, Rao said if the party has to take action against them, it has to be discussed at a wider level and the decision cannot be knee- jerk, which the BJP would not indulge in.
"An ideal situation is they resign from the party. They should take a call, if they have so much of problems in governance and they are not finding enough opportunities to voice within the party, they should resign," he said.
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