Yashwant Sinha demands Gadkari's resignation

The orchestrated in-house chorus seeking the resignation of beleaguered BJP president Nitin Gadkari was re-played in public again on Tuesday when senior party leader Yashwant Sinha asked him to step down from the post.

Sinha’s statement came at a time when it would hurt the BJP the most as it is grappling to formulate a strategy with other NDA allies to put the UPA government on the mat once Parliament winter session begins on Thursday. Gadkari is also suppose to lead a dharna in Delhi.

Sinha chose a news agency to put forth his statement seeking Gadkari’s resignation after attending the party’s parliamentary meeting but subsequently became incommunicado. “I call upon Shri Nitin Gadkari, with all the humility at my command, to immediately step down from the post of party president,” the Hazaribag MP said.

At the same time, he claimed that “I seek nothing for myself. I have nothing left to prove in my life.” The party was anticipating that Sinha would come up with embarrassing statement ever since Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani had claimed that he had the support of couple of leaders, including of Yashwant Singh and Jaswant Singh. Sinha said he was asking for Gadkari’s resignation with a “great deal of sadness and regret and after exhausting the forums available”.  “I am confident that the issue I am raising has merit and I have faith in the wisdom of the party to be able to deal with this issue,” Sinha said.

On the contrary, party spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad told reporters that Sinha’s decision to skip the party forum and go public over the issue was “not appropriate”.  The party has appealed him to rethink on his decision, Prasad added.

“Whether our party president is guilty or not is not the issue today. The issue is that all of us in public life should be beyond reproach. We have no right to let down the people of India. This is what we have done by taking the easy way out through a questionable method of self certification,” the former finance minister said taking a dig at RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy’s clean chit to Gadkari.

That the BJP was requesting Sinha to withdraw his statement clearly indicates the weakness as it is not in  a position of taking action against him, party sources said.
Any action against him would amount to sending a signal that while tainted president is being protected and leaders who are seeking action against corruption are being penalised.

“We have also deeply disappointed those who were looking towards us to fight the mind boggling corruption of the Congress party,” Sinha added.