Jaswant Singh calls BJP a divided party: Will he resign?

NEW DELHI: Calling BJP a divided party, senior leader Jaswant Singh on Saturday said that he will decide on the future course of action for the Lok Sabha polls after talking to his supporters. Singh, who was denied the Barmer ticket by BJP said, "I will decide on what has to be done on March 24 after I talk to my supporters in Barmer."

"Outsiders have encroached upon the BJP. BJP is now a divided party," he reiterated. According to Times Now sources, the BJP leader is likely to resign from the party on Sunday.

Jaswant Singh had made it known that he is keen on contesting from Barmer, his home constituency, one last time in these Lok Sabha elections before he hangs his boots. The former Union minister - who was unceremoniously thrown out of the party in 2009 for writing a book praising Pakistan founder MA Jinnah and returned a year later at the insistence of LK Advani - was denied that privilege.

BJP has declared Colonel Sona Ram Chaudhary, a former Congress leader belonging to the Jat community, as its candidate from Barmer. The decision was not taken in the central election committee but made public through a press statement. Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who has had uneasy political equations with Jaswant Singh for a long time, wanted Chaudhary to be fielded from this seat on the grounds that the constituency has a sizable Jat population.

His son, Manvendra Singh, who is an MLA from Sheo Assembly seat in Barmer district at present, had won the Barmer Lok Sabha seat in 2004.

There were strong murmurs that Manvendra Singh will become a minister when Raje was forming her Cabinet in December. Sources said he might be made a minister after the Lok Sabha elections, a factor that the party feels, will rein in Jaswant Singh.