Congress condemns scared BJP’s action on Kirti Azad says Sandeep Dikshit

Azad had defied BJP chief Amit Shah and went ahead with a press conference on Sunday last highlighting corruption allegations linked to Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) of which Jaitley was the president for 13 years till 2013.

BJP punished Azad for his alleged anti-party activities and for colluding with the Congress and AAP to embarrass his party.

Kirti Azad, the BJP MP from Bihar, has been suspended by his party for “anti-party activities”. “People have started losing faith”, he said while returnig from his two-day visit to Amethi.

L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi set up a meeting at Joshi’s house where they were joined by Yashwant Sinha and Shanta Kumar. “I reiterate that I remain a loyal worker of BJP and have no intention of causing embarrassment to my party or to indulge in any anti-party activity”, Azad said in his letter to Shah. Azad said on Wednesday that his suspension was “unfortunate” and that his fight was against corruption and not any individual. “I can’t say more”.

The parliamentarian also said that if speaking the truth was a crime, he would continue to do so again and again and appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into the whole matter. Refusing to speak further on the issue, Mr Azad said, “I intend to reserve my comments at this juncture”. Senior party leaders, including Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, had met Advani later.

Azad’s suspension seems to have exposed the divisions within the party.

Meanwhile, Jaitley has filed criminal defamation case and also filed civil defamation suit in Delhi High Court of Rs. 10 crores against Kejriwal and other AAP leaders, amid a raging row over irregularities in the DDCA and allegations of corruptions against him by the Delhi Government.

A veteran was quoted by a news organisation, where he said that the issue related to Azad’s suspension will be considered as the background of the meeting.

Reacting to Kirti Azad’s expose on money embezzlement in DDCA during Arun Jaitley’s term, Hockey India President Narender Batra today said the former India player’s charges through a sting operation was a “pack of lies” and the receipts shown were all fake.

Swamy, on his part, appeared to question the party’s decision to suspend Azad, asking whether cricket fell within the purview of party discipline.

Referring to this statement of Shah, where DDCA is only indirectly referred to, Azad bowled a googly in his reply.