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After expelling party stalwart Jaswant Singh, now it seems that the Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to take action against the veteran leader’s son and legislator Manvendra Singh for allegedly campaigning for his father.
Manvendra had defeated Colonel Sonaram Choudhary in 2004, who was then a Congress leader. But now Choudhary, who has now joined the BJP, was preferred by the party over his father, Jaswant Singh, one of the founder members of the BJP when it was formed in 1980.
In the fight for prestige, Jaswant’s wife Sheetal Kanwar and daughter-in-law Chitra Singh are campaigning extensively for the stalwart. While soon after his father filing his nomination from Barmer, Manvendra had sent in an application to the party stating that due to poor health condition, he would be unable to campaign for the BJP for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
However, since the last few days, the vernacular media has been reporting that Manvendra is holding meetings and addressing people in favour of his father. The party has taken serious offence to this, and its state president Ashok Parnami told media persons, “If Manvendra wants to campaign for his father, it has to be after he resigns from the party. Morally, he can not support Jaswant Singh’s candidature being a BJP legislator.”
While Parnami talked about morality, Bhupendra Yadav, BJP Rajya Sabha member clearly mentioned that the party will take action, “Action will be taken against anyone who remains involved in such activities.”
Manvendra was a member of Parliament MP from Barmer in the 14th Lok Sabha and is currently a BJP member of Legislative Assembly from the Shiv constituency.
The 49-year-old politician, an alumnus of MayoCollege and Hampshire College, Massachusetts has also been a journalist before taking the political plunge. He has worked with reputed English dailies such as The Statesman and the Indian Express.