Padma Mohanty
New Delhi: Former BJP President and Lok Sabha MP Murli Manohar Joshi have been asked by his party to not contest the coming general elections. The 85-year-old is the latest BJP long-serving leader to be benched after LK Advani from next month’s contest.
Joshi’s office confirmed the development and said Joshi has provided a brief statement for the voters of Kanpur, from where he had won in 2014. In the letter, he had written “Dear voters of Kanpur, Shri Ramlal General Secretary (Org.) Bharatiya Janata Party conveyed to me today that I should not contest the ensuing parliamentary election from Kanpur and elsewhere.”
[bctt tweet=”Support Murli Manohar Joshi and BJP ? Share on twitter”]
On Monday, the message was conveyed to Joshi by BJP’s general secretary organization Ram Lal, who had also conveyed the same to Advani last week. Joshi, who was all set to contest from Kanpur again, had earlier been asked by Ram Lal to save the party from embarrassment and make the announcement by himself only. Joshi was extremely hurt and told Ram Lal over the weekend that he would not make any announcements of that sort and he was keen to contest Kanpur as the sitting MP. Sources say that Joshi told Ram Lal that it was a huge insult to him that Modi and Shah used him to deliver a message which they need to do.
Joshi had won the Varanasi seat in 2009, which he later gave up for then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in 2014, as the latter contested as the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. Joshi currently heads Parliament’s Estimates Committee and some of its observations, including on jobs, the GDP and non-performing assets, embarrassed the government, as per PTI(Press Trust Of India). PTI also quoted that BJP has taken a “principled decision” and the veterans should make way for younger leaders. Both Joshi and Advani are viewed as founding members of BJP along with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Joshi as the chairman of the Estimates Committee of Parliament has repeatedly created awkward situations for the Modi government by refusing to pull his punches. Joshi’s reports on defense preparedness, the Ganga clean-up, and banking NPAs have left the BJP red-faced. Joshi also brought the “Rajan list” of willful fraudulent defaulters to light. The denial of the Kanpur ticket is perhaps a punishment for Joshi’s bitter reports. A senior BJP leader said, “This is no way to treat our founders. They are literally being thrown out. Modi and Shah have set a dangerous precedent and they will face the same treatment later”.
What Opposition Says Regarding This:
Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the move was an insult to Hindu culture. Sharad Yadav of the Lok Jantrik Dal said veterans were being denied tickets as the BJP top brass wanted to run the party in a “wrong way”.
The BJP has decided to ban all its leaders from 2019 election who are 75 plus age. With this it will an end of the political journey of leaders like B C Khanduri, Kariya Munda, Kalraj Mishra, Bijoya Chakravarty including Joshi and Advani.
