BJP suspends Alka Mishra for 6 years

The BJP, apparently to distance itself from the issue, said today that the murder was the fallout of a dispute between two individuals and had nothing to do with the party. The party’s state unit general secretary Vindhyavasini Kumar said, ‘‘The party is involved only when the party is in action. This incident was essentially (borne out of) a dispute between two persons.’’ Kumar denied that the episode, which came close on the heels of the BJP’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, had further dented the party’s image.

In fact, the murder had exposed the existence of many factions in the BJP. Also, the fact that Sharma was the local secretary of the BJP Mahila Morcha and Mishra a high-profile BJP corporator whose husband, P.K. Mishra is DIG (Prisons), was in itself a cause of concern for the leadership.

On June 8, when Sharma’s body was recovered, the party’s local unit, led by Jairam Singh, had planned to gherao the SSP’s office in protest against the murder. The gherao failed to take place.

Last night, the planned protest by the BJP corporators against Mishra’s arrest, at the behest of the Leader of Opposition, Lalji Tandon, was called off at the last moment, apparently by a phone call from New Delhi.