Expelled BJP veteran Jaswant Singh on Sunday said the saffron party has lost sight of its vision and frittered away its virtue for short-term political gain.

“A party that cannot afford its most loyal adherents even the very basic courtesies, puts the petty whims of individuals before the greater good of the people, has certainly lost sight of its vision and frittered away its virtue for temporary political gain. Towards what end, only time will tell,” he said in a statement released here as a reaction to his expulsion.

Singh, who was expelled by the party on Friday for six years for refusing to withdraw his nomination as an independent form Barmer, said he was “saddened” to find that the BJP of today “is not” the party that its founding fathers Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had envisioned and aspired it to be.

The nine-time MP, who was one of the founding office bearers of the party, has decided to contest as an independent against BJP candidate Col Sonaram from here who switched over from Congress barely three days before getting a ticket.

On BJP’s move to give ticket to Sonaram, Singh said the party had conveyed its decision to select a candidate with questionable public record, who barely a day earlier had switched over from the Congress. “To cover the decision, the party had attempted to cast doubt over my winnability, and discredit my record be it over Ashok Gehlot in 1989 or twice in Chhittorgarh and most recently in Darjeeling,” he said.

Jaswant said he had conveyed his wish of contesting from Barmer to his colleagues in Parliament, including Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu, after which a response was sought from local party office bearers and MLAs, all of whom favoured his candidature.

Separately in an interview to a news agency, Jaswant made a sharp attack on Modi and BJP campaign centric around him. “I don’t think veneration of an individual is a proper attitude for a political party. There was a very great leader of France who said that graveyards of world are full of those who are considered indispensable to their nations,” Jaswant said. 

The former external affairs minister also hit hard at Rajnath Singh saying that he had cautioned the party about his presidency and that the party would be victim of his decision.