Party MLAs target Jaspal

VADODARA, May 23: After city and district BJP workers, councillors and leaders, it was the turn of party legislators to come down on Mini...

VADODARA, May 23: After city and district BJP workers, councillors and leaders, it was the turn of party legislators to come down on Minister for Jails Jaspal Singh at an informal meeting presided over by State party unit general secretary Sanjay Joshi on Saturday.

While previous complaints had been lodged before the State leadership, yesterday8217;s tirade came in the minister8217;s presence.

According to party sources, senior leaders had asked MLAs Bhupendra Lakhawala, Yogesh Patel, Dilubha Chudasama, Madhu Srivastava and Singh to thrash out their differences on a one-to-one basis in view of the imminent elections.

The MLAs and Joshi, who were attending a media workshop at the Narmada Guest House in Vadodara, thus took some time off for an impromptu meeting, where, all the MLAs, except city unit president and new minister Bhupendra Lakhawala, reportedly criticised Singh for his 8220;arrogance8221; and 8220;unilateral8221; way of functioning.

They reportedly said that Singh was not effective as the minister in-charge of Vadodara and of little help when they approached him in Gandhinagar for various works.

While one MLA alleged that Singh never participated in local party affairs, Srivastava reportedly brought up the issue of a huge piece of land owned by the Vaccine Institute in the upmarket Old Padra Road. Singh was preventing the land from being dereserved, though the State government had agreed to do so, he claimed.

An MLA reportedly went to the extent of accusing Singh of speaking against the chief minister on several occasions, while another alleged that the minister rarely attended party functions.

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Singh reportedly responded by saying that he had never given short shrift to anyone and denied ever speaking against the party or the chief minister.

According to sources, Singh maintained that he never intended to humiliate anyone and asked to be excused if the MLAs or party workers had felt hurt. He also reportedly agreed to get better consensus on issues.

When contacted, Lakhawala, however, denied that the MLAs had complained against Singh. 8220;Just party affairs were discussed at the meeting, and in such discussions there may be differences. There may be matbhed difference of opinion but no janbhed individual dislikes. Whoever is giving this information to the Press is not acting in the interest of the party,8221; he asserted.

While Yogesh Patel refused to comment, Srivastava said, 8220;I am not aware if some complaints were made before I reached there.8221; Asked about the land issue he had reportedly raised, he said, 8220;I have nothing to do with it, I don8217;t know anything8221;.