JOIN USHanding over a parting gift on New Year eve to its suspended Darbhanga MP, the BJP on Thursday issued a show cause notice to Kirti Azad, asking why should he not be expelled from the party on the charges that he continued to indulge in anti-party activities through his relentless attack on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the DDCA scam.
Nine days back, the party had suspended him alleging that he was indulging in anti-party activities by publicly taking on Arun Jaitley despite the fact that BJP president Amit Shah had cautioned him not to indulge in mud slinging which is embarrassing to the organisation.
In the show-cause notice, the BJP has asked former Test cricketer to reply in 10 days on why he should not be thrown out of the party.
Though Azad has been insisting that his fight was against corruption in the DDCA and had nothing to do either with Jaitley or Jaitley, what irked party, said sources, was his relentless finger-pointing at a time when the Delhi-ruling AAP has made it a political issue to attack the finance minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.
Perhaps, believe party sources, Azad did not got audience which was seeking from the prime minister to explain his take on the DDCA case.
It is learnt that Azad’s attempt to seek support from disgruntled leaders within the party – be it old guards lead by LK Advani or Subramaniam Swamy – did not go down well with the establishment.
After Azad was suspended on December 23, Advani, M M Joshi, Shanta Kumar and Yashwant Sinha had got together and expressed solidarity with the MP. They had also decided to take up his issue at the party platform since they were of the view that he was raising corruption matter in a sports body since years now.
In the suspension order, the BJP had accused him of “breaching party discipline conducted anti-party activities” over the past few months.
Taking note of his direct attack on Jaitley in the Lok Sabha at a time when Congress was also raising the DDCA issue in the just-held winter session, the suspension order had stated that “inside and outside Parliament you conducted yourself in a manner that amounts to indiscipline and anti-party activities. You made several statements to carry out a false propaganda. So the parliamentary board has suspended you from the party membership".
Later, Azad wrote to BJP chief Amit Shah, saying that the charges against him were vague and that he should be given specific charges. He had also sought help from Subramaniam Swamy on replying to his suspension order.
DH News Service