The Bharatiya Janata Party has not lost hope on senior party leader Jaswant Singh reconsidering his decision to fall in line with the party’s view in spite of the leader filing his nomination papers as an Independent from Barmer in Rajasthan.
The BJP is yet to take any disciplinary action against the leader, who has accused party president Rajnath Singh of betraying him, as the party has taken a magnanimous view.
The party said Mr. Rajnath Singh reached out to Mr. Singh in a dignified move. “Mr. Rajnath Singh calling him [Jaswant Singh] was a dignified action of the party president, it should not be interpreted as an admission of a mistake,” senior leader Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday.
The party leadership dismissed the accusations levelled by Mr. Jaswant Singh against Prime Ministerial nominee Narendra Modi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje as baseless and put forth electoral arithmetic as the reason for denying him ticket.
“The caste equation in the area called for putting up a candidate from the Jat community and Col. Sonaram fits the bill,” a senior leader said. Mr. Jaswant Singh has been vocal about being insulted.
Participating in a Google Hangout interaction, Mr. Jaitley refuted Mr. Jaswant Singh’s allegations of a personality cult around Mr. Modi and attributed his outburst to being denied ticket.
“I would have had greater faith in the comment of Jaswant Singh if he had made it a week earlier. If he felt all this was going on, he has been attending every meeting of the party and he should have said it a week earlier,” he said.
Asked whether Mr. Singh’s rebellion would have an adverse impact on the political future of his son, Manvendra, who is an MLA, Mr. Jaitely said the party did not intend to take action against him.
