Cong indirectly responsible for Deendayal's death: BJP MP

Madhya Pradesh BJP's organisational general secretary Arvind Menon on Monday kicked up a political storm by alleging that the Congress was indirectly responsible for the death of late Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya.

At a function to mark Upadhyaya’s death anniversary at the BJP office here, the organisational secretary alleged that the Congress had become afraid of the late leader and soon after he was found dead.Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar were present at the function where Menon made his remarks.

Reacting to Menon’s remarks, MP Assembly Opposition leader Ajay Singh strongly objected to what Menon had said and added that if “he knew who the murderer was, he should name him.”

Ajay Singh also said that in his autobiography “Zindagi Ka Safar,” the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh Balraj Madhok had written that he was admonished by Atal Bihari Vajpayee to float the accident theory about Upadhyaya's death.

Singh said that as per Madhok's book, it was only after his refusal to do so that he was asked to resign from the primary membership of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of the BJP.He said it is common knowledge that after Upadhyaya's death, Vajpayee became the Bharatiya Jana Sangh president, while Balasaheb Deoras became its secretary.

MP Congress media department chairman Manak Agarwal said that it does not behove Menon who belongs to an organisation which allegedly has links with killers of Mahatma Gandhi to make such allegations.Deendayal Upadhyaya was fond dead on February 11, 1968, while travelling in a train.