Kirti Azad’s supporters protest outside BJP office Dec 24, 5:32 pm

Azad is slated to meet Joshi to decide the future course of action.

“I confirm this that I will assist Kirti Azad on the draft notice from party”. He said the HAM candidate was defeated in the hustings due to Mr. Azad’s opposition. The move comes after speculations whether the party top brass would ignore Azad’s actions, just as it had ignored another rebel Shatrughan Sinha’s comments after the Bihar election results.

The former cricketer said that he has received the notice of suspension and he is planning to reply to the party by this evening. The BJP hit back saying the party’s senior leaders had set the precedent of “collective responsibility”. Azad asked as journalists sought his reaction. “I have never spoken against the party”.

Jaitley on Monday filed a defamation suit against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders and demanded Rs100mn in damages for linking him with alleged corruption. “I only exposed corruption”.

Meanwhile, the Darbhanga MP is banking on his clean image in the party, and the fact that he has been raising the DDCA issue for the past nine years. “We will be exploring all possible options including issuing show notice to the two [Bedi, Azad] who are also voting members”.

Asked about his future programme, a visibly defiant Azad said: “See, what happens now”.

Yesterday, party chief Amit Shah ordered his suspension for publicly targeting Jaitley with allegations of irregularities in Delhi’s cricket body DDCA. Worth mentioning, Azad recently led a campaign against Jaitley on alleged corruption in DDCA.

The BJP’s old guard today hinted that they might give suspended MP Kirti Azad a shoulder to cry on but would not engage in a public battle on his behalf. Azad has threatened more expose against DDCA. Then, the veterans had said in a statement that the present leadership had “emasculated” 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.

After the BJP’s Bihar setback, these party veterans took on Modi and Shah, demanding “a thorough review” of the debacle.

Advani, Joshi, Shanta Kumar and former finance minister Sinha are known to be unhappy with the working style of Shah, a confidant of Prime Minister Modi.

Suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad and PM Narendra Modi.