BJP going Cong way 8212; Kalyan

NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW, DEC 4: The BJP had abandoned the Hindutva plank and haddeviated from social engineering. The party had started believin...

NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW, DEC 4: The BJP had abandoned the Hindutva plank and haddeviated from social engineering. The party had started believing inhero-worshipping like the Congress. There was respect only for sycophants inthe party and no place for dedicated workers.

This is Kalyan Singh8217;s reply to the show-cause notice issued to him by partypresident Kushabhau Thakre. Kalyan claimed that the party was changing itscharacter under the influence of one person acirc;euro;ldquo; Prime Minister Atal BehariVajpayee acirc;euro;ldquo; who was also responsible for Kalyan8217;s imminent ouster.

Kalyan has sent his reply to Thakre in a sealed envelope with a copy toVajpayee and L K Advani. Since Thakre was out of station till Monday, theenvelope was not opened. However, Kalyan made available copies of his replyto the media. Chairman of BJP8217;s disciplinary committee J P Mathur told TheIndian Express that the envelope would be opened by Thakre only on Mondayand would then be handed over to the committee which would decide Kalyan8217;sfate at a meeting of its members: Union Labour Minister Satyanarain Jatiya,Minister of State for Power, Jayawantiben Mehta, Rajya Sabha MP O P Kohli,and Vijay Shanker Dubey, a Bihar advocate.

The whole process is unlikely to take more than a couple of days andKalyan8217;s future would be sealed any time next week. The BJP high command wasin no mood to soften its stand on Kalyan, especially in view of hisundiluted criticism of the Prime Minister. 8220;In fact, his reply itself wasenough evidence to throw him out of the party,8221; a senior leader said. As aprecursor of things to come, the BJP leadership reconstituted AligarhKalyan8217;s native place district unit of the party yesterday and expelledhis strong supporter V S Siroha, a member of Legislative Council, from theparty today.

Kalyan, in his reply, claimed that the Congressisation of the BJP had beenalmost complete, adding that the Prime Minister had nothing to do with theideologies and pledges of Deen Dayal Upadhyay. Technically, the BJP has beenleft with only the symbol and the recognition letter as a party from theElection Commission, he said. By questioning his dedication to the party andprinciples, the party leadership had hurt Kalyan badly.

He also denied having said anything objectionable at Aligarh or Delhi whichdenigrated the party.8220;I spoke plain truth which is always bitter and onlybroadminded people can digest it,8221; he said.

BJP suspends Kalyan loyalist
LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya janata Party on Saturday suspended its UttarPradesh general secretary and MLC Veer Sen Siroha, a Kalyan loyalist, fromthe party8217;s primary membership.

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quot;Siroha has been suspended for going public against the party high command8217;sdecisions thereby lowering the prestige of the party,quot; Rampati Ram Tripathi,who is also State BJP general secretary, said here quoting party8217;s Stateunit president and Union Minister Rajnath Singh.

Siroha had been asked to send his reply within a week, Tripathi said.