Relationship with BJP practically over: Saini

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 2

Rebel BJP MP from Kurukshetra Raj Kumar Saini categorically spelled out  here on Monday that his association with the party was “practically over”.

“Although I am still a BJP MP, my relationship with the party is done and dusted,” Saini said. He said he was awaiting registration of his political outfit.

The party would put up nominees in all 10 Lok Sabha seats and 90 Assembly constituencies in the state in the upcoming parliamentary and Assembly elections next year, he said.

Outlining his future, he said he  would contest the Assembly election on his party symbol and not the Lok Sabha election. His clarified that he had not spoken to BJP leaders in the Centre and state in three years.

He said his option to join a BJP-led NDA or front planned by opposition parties was open. He said he would not be part of any anti-BJP conglomeration featuring the Congress.

“Congress leaders  have done nothing in the past 70 years except invoking names of Gandhi family to serve their petty politically interests. The first family of the Congress  has belied expectations of people,” he said.

Although he was vocal in his criticism of the BJP, he reserved comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Talking about the structure of his new party, he said the spadework had been done.

It would be almost the same as the Loktantra Suraksha Manch, under which he had been campaigning for three years, he said. The name of the party would more or less match that of the manch, he said.

The manifesto of the new party would feature issues for which he had been campaigning under the banner of the manch for the past three years, he said.

It would include demand for reservation to all castes on the basis of their numerical strength and social justice, he pointed out.

“The backward classes and other backward classes had overwhelmingly voted for the BJP in 2014 in the name of Narendra Modi,”  he said.

The electorate would cast their votes on the basis of performance in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, he said. He  declined to dwell  further into the matter.