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Jaswant denied Barmer ticket
Jaswant Singh Denied Barmer Ticket. After BJP patriarch L K Advani, it was the turn of yet another member of the BJP Old Guard Jaswant Singh to show his angst against the party leader for not getting the constituency of his choice to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
May contest as an independent
- Party gives ticket to a Jat candidate, Colonel Sona Ram Choudhary, who was recently inducted into the BJP from the Congress
- Jaswant’s son Manvendra is an MLA from Barmer constituency. He had defeated Sona Ram in 2004 elections from the same constituency
New Delhi: After BJP patriarch L K Advani, it was the turn of yet another member of the BJP Old Guard Jaswant Singh to show his angst against the party leader for not getting the constituency of his choice to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Singh was denied the ticket from Barmer, his native place, from where the former Defence Minister wanted to contest for the last time. Instead, the party gave the ticket to a Jat candidate, Colonel Sona Ram Choudhary, who was recently inducted into the BJP from the Congress.
Feeling let down, Jaswant Singh is all prepared to contest as an Independent candidate. His son Manvendra Singh happens to be an MLA from the same Barmer constituency. In fact, his son had defeated Sona Ram in 2004 elections from the same constituency.
Singh was elected to Lok Sabha in 1991 and 1996 from Chittorgarh in Rajasthan and from Darjeeling in West Bengal in 2009.
This time, he was keen to contest from his own State but has been denied the ticket by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
Raje had inducted Sona Ram into the party since he represents the Jat community, which can be a big draw not only in Barmer but can even influence in the neighbouring constituencies. By giving ticket to Singh, the whole purpose of inducting Sona Ram into the BJP would be defeated. Modi chose to heed the argument put forth by Vasundhara Raje rather than listening to the plea of Jaswant Singh, who happens to be a close aide of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and BJP patriarch L K Advani.
Unlike Advani, who was persuaded to fall in line by senior leaders in the party, there were no attempts by anyone in the party to placate Jaswant Singh.
Jaswant Singh is an experienced leader and had held charge of all key portfolios, like Finance, External Affairs and Defence, a distinction few can rival. Jaswant Singh held over a dozen-odd round of talks with the then US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to firm up Indo-US relations during the tenure of Vajpayee government.
