Former Bharatiya Janata Party ideologue K.N. Govindacharya has in a scathing open letter to party president Nitin Gadkari charged him and party spokespersons with making him a victim of the party's petty factional politics.
Releasing the copy of his letter to the press, he said, very plainly that he voluntarily refrained from renewing his party membership in September 2003 and had no wish to return to the party fold.
It was therefore wrong of Mr. Gadkari and party spokespersons of dragging his name along with those of Uma Bharati and Kalyan Singh and suggest his return to the BJP was possible.
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In the year 2000 he went on aa study leave – he had not been expelled or suspended from the party nor had he resigned then – and three years later he decided not to renew his party membership as he did not want to be part of power politics.
He said while he continued to be a ‘swayamsevak' of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and would continue to serve the country in his own way, he had no wish to rejoin the faction-ridden party.
The question has arisen several times since Mr. Gadkari became party president towards the end of 2009. On several occasions it was said that efforts would be made to ensure the return of partymen who had left for one reason or another.
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Recently, Mr. Gadkari consulted Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan on the possible return of Uma Bharati. Mr. Chauhan is believed to have opposed her return saying that this would create unnecessary trouble in the State unit of the party.
Speculation
Unofficially it was said in the party that there was the possibility of Mr. Govindacharya also returning to the BJP. This speculation gathered strength after Mr. Govindacharya disassociated himself from the non-governmental organisation he was working with.