With an eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday revoked the suspension of its five MLAs from Jammu who, defying the party whip had cast their vote in favour of the ruling National Conference candidates during the 2011 elections to the State Legislative Council. Pointing out that a communiqué in this regard has been received from party's national general secretary Jagat Prakash Nadda, a BJP spokesman here this evening said that these five MLAs include Baldev Raj, Master Lal Chand, Durga Dass, Bharat Bhushan and Prof Charu Ram. The decision followed letters from them to the BJP's national president Rajnath Singh expressing their "unconditional" desire to work for the party as per its priorities and directives, the spokesman added. The BJP had suspended its seven of the 11 MLAs after they defying party whip had cross voted in favour of ruling National Conference candidates during the 2011 Legislative Council elections. About the remaining two, while Prof Chaman Lal Gupta has been expelled from the party for six years, Jagdish Raj Sapolia continues to face suspension, spokesman said. Though many in the state BJP are opposed to the party high command decision to take back the suspended MLAs, political observers feel that their suspension has been revoked for further consolidation of the party's mass base ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in the state.
