NEW DELHI, Mar 24 :Fissures in the BJP’s top ranks continue to rock the party’s run up to the Lok Sabha elections this summer.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and senior party leader Arun Jaitley, penned a blog post on Sunday indicating that he was taking a position against an upset Jaswant Singh, who was denied a ticket from Barmer, and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, who had come out in support of Singh.
Without explicitly naming him, Jaitley asked Singh to learn to take no for an answer. Singh, a former minister in Vajpayee’s government, announced that he would contest as an independent from Barmer in Rajasthan, after the party rejected his candidature from there.
“The leader may have to take ‘no’ as an answer to his desires. How does a politician or a leader react to such ‘no’? He must accept the decision with a smile. This becomes a test of his loyalty and discipline. Restraint and silence are always a preferred option. Over-reaction may prove be a transient storm in a teacup. Silence is always dignified and more gracious,” wrote 61-year-old Jaitley, who is contesting from Amritsar.
Political observers also see the blog post as a message to Swaraj.
Jaitley had earlier publicly objected to Swaraj’s criticism over inducting controversial leader B Sriramulu into the BJP in Karnataka. Even then Jaitley had disapproved Swaraj’s position, and accused her of focusing on “marginal issues”.
