New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday expelled its senior leader Jaswant Singh for six years for not withdrawing his candidature from Barmer seat in Rajasthan. Singh will now contest elections as an Independent against BJP's Colonel Sonaram Choudhary and Harish Choudhary of the Congress.
The party had already warned the former External Affairs Minister to withdraw his candidature, failing which he would be expelled. Earlier in the day Singh ruled out his withdrawal from the Lok Sabha poll fray. "No senior leader of BJP has contacted me on this issue (withdrawal of nomination). I am not going to withdraw," Singh had said.
Today was the last date for withdrawal of nomination in the constituency which is going to polls on April 17.
Rift appeared in the BJP after the senior leader was refused the ticket from his home town Barmer. It was Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje who threw her weight behind Sonaram Choudhary and he was given the ticket.
Even senior party leader Sushma Swaraj had backed Singh and said that the decision on Barmer seat was not taken at the party's Central Election Committee meeting.
This is the second time that Singh has been expelled from the party. He was earlier expelled for his book 'Jinnah: India-Partition Independence'.
The party expelled another rebel leader Subhash Maharia, former union minister, who is contesting as an Independent in Sikar constituency, also in Rajasthan, against BJP's official nominee.
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