Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha is upset over the appointment of Ravindra Rai as the new chief of party’s Jharkhand unit. Sinha told party veteran lK Advani on Monday that the recent developments suggest he has “lost utility in the party” but he “cannot accept the way party was being run”. Sinha made his opposition clear to Advani during the morning meeting of top BJP leaders before the Parliament session. Sinha represents Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh constituency in the lok Sabha.
One time dissident legislator Ravindra Rai’s appointment as Jharkhand BJP chief has raised eyebrows in the party, as he had joined ranks with Babulal Marandi to float Jharkhand Vikas Morcha in 2006. Rai returned to the BJP in 2009.
Sinha remained tight-lipped on the issue but sources claimed he was upset that party’s top brass “buckled under pressure” from former Chief Minister Arjun Munda to appoint Rai as State BJP chief.
Munda had on Friday resigned as leader of BJP legislature party in Jharkhand in an apparent bid to pre-empt the appointment of arch rival and Jamshedpur East MlA Raghubar Das as the Jharkhand BJP chief. Munda is now tipped to become national general secretary of the party. There were unconfirmed reports that Sinha also conveyed to the BJP leadership his intention to quit his lok Sabha seat when his “voice was not being heard” in the party.
Sources claimed BJP chief Rajnath Singh spoke to Sinha on Sunday and asked him not to precipitate matters till he returns to the national Capital. Singh was in Kolkata on Monday to address a Panchayat Conference. Besides Sinha, Khunti MP Karia Munda, also the deputy Speaker of lok Sabha, is understood to be upset with Rai’s appointment.