Rahul Gandhi Targets PM Modi On Kirti Azad’s Suspension

Underlining himself as a “loyal soldier of BJP since 1993”, suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad on Friday shot off a letter to party president Amit Shah requesting “proofs” of his anti-party activities so that he can clear those allegations against himself.

A day after his suspension following his relentless campaign against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a defiant Azad maintained that his fight was only against alleged corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and not against any individual.

Supporters of suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad today staged a protest outside 11, Ashoka Road, party’s headquarters, demanding withdrawal of his suspension from the party.

Given his unprecedented rebellion in BJP’s history – which also included an attack on Jaitley on the floor of Parliament and through multiple posts on Twitter – it was expected that the party will wait for the Parliament’s Winter Session to be over before taking action. BJP general secretary Ram Madhav had subsequently said the matter was a “closed chapter”, suggesting that the party had reached out to them to address their issues. “I have worked honestly for the party but I was branded anti-party”.

He has now signalled with his letter that he remains a loyal party soldier who has taken his complaint to the party’s top leaders, instead of going to the four veterans, who had challenged the leadership over the BJP’s poor performance in the Bihar election. Jaitley had headed the DDCA for years before the BJP came back into power and he became finance minister.

On the other hand, actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha came out in support of Azad and asked Jaitley to follow the example of veteran party leader LK Advani, who had resigned over the Hawala case, and come clean as advised by the PM. “We will be exploring all possible options including issuing show notice to the two [Bedi, Azad] who are also voting members”. Azad and Jaitley never saw eyeto- eye, and the former had filed complaints regarding corruption in the DDCA with the UPA government too, which led to the investigations by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office. The suspension of Kirti Azad from the Bharatiya Janata Party is nothing but a manifestation of the corruptionphilia that grips the party, Congress leader Randip Surjewala said in a statement on Wednesday. He also threatened to fully expose the alleged corruption scandal in the DDCA.