Efforts of senior BJP and RSS leaders have failed to bear fruit as the Himachal lokhit Party (HlP) has ruled out its merger with BJP, saying veteran leader lK Advani is no more given due regard. After meeting senior BJP and RSS leaders, former MP and the HlP chief Maheshwar Singh held a meeting of core group on Monday at Shimla in which a political resolution was passed that the newly floated party will not merge with its parent organisation, the BJP. “Nothing much has changed in the party since we left. Our party has raised certain issues against the State BJP, when we were forced to form a new party and till now nothing much have changed,” said Maheshwar Singh after the meeting of core group.
“In a party where the seniormost leader, lal Kishan Advani, is not respected and is sidelined, the HlP cannot merge,” said Singh, adding that core group has decided that HlP will not contest the lok Sabha elections and would strengthen the likeminded parties and maintain equal distance from BJP and Congress.
BJP was trying to rope in Maheshwar Singh into the party by persuading him to merge his Himachal lokhit Party (HlP) of which he is the lone MlA in the State and contest the parliamentary elections from Mandi where Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh is likely to contest.
The core group meeting of party was called after Maheshwar Singh last week met senior leaders of the BJP and the RSS after which he said that all options are open for his party.
Interestingly, Maheshwar Singh had
recently met Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and held a short close door meeting with him at Mandi during Shivratri festival after returning from Delhi.