BJP was on Sunday left red-faced as it inducted Pramod Muthalik, the controversial chief of Sri Rama Sene linked with the attack 
on women at a pub in Mangalore in 2009, only to dump him within hours after opposition from within and severe flak from other parties.
Muthalik, who is facing some 45 cases including those relating to promoting enmity between two communities, was welcomed into the party fold in the presence of Karnataka party president Prahalad Joshi, former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and former Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa at a function in Hubli.
But as Congress and other parties latched on the issue to attack BJP and rumblings began within the saffron party, BJP President Rajnath Singh directed Joshi to rescind the move.
Party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said in Delhi the central leadership was not consulted on the decision and has disapproved of it. “It had instructed the state party to reject the membership of Muthalik.”
Soon after the party chief’s call, Joshi said the decision allowing entry of Muthalik has been set aside.
“Due to various reasons, induction of Pramod Muthalik has been set aside under central party direction by the state president Prahlad Joshi,” said a statement issued by the party’s Karnataka unit.
Asked about the confusion, Joshi said the decision to induct Muthalik into the party was taken at the state level.
51-year-old Muthalik had shot into limelight after activists of his right-wing outfit had barged into the pub in Mangalore in 2009 and assaulted youngsters women and men after accusing them of behaving in an “obscene manner”.
Muthalik, who was arrested after the incident, had apologised for the violence but claimed that their actions were “aimed at protecting the women”. The then Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa had said Sri Ram Sene had “nothing to do” with BJP or the Sangh parivar.
Congress slammed BJP’s move to induct Muthalik saying that its leaders, including Sushma Swaraj have been talking about women’s empowerment but their party was now “glaringly opposing women’s emancipation” and had been exposed.
Party leader Ambika Soni said people should send a firm message in the coming election that “any party which honours, appeases people who publicly violate the self-respect and dignity of women are not going to be tolerated”.
“You can see this is height of opportunism and I think that women across the country should take a very decisive call on this.” BJP leader and Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar also asked the party leadership to reconsider the decision to induct Muthalik.
Parrikar, who was in Nagpur on Sunday to campaign for the BJP, said that he had conveyed his opposition to the BJP’s national leadership.
“I have said he should not be (taken into BJP) and his membership should be quashed,” he said. Congress leader Digvijay Singh, a known RSS baiter, hit out at the Sangh Parivar and renewed his allegations of its links with terrorism.
“There have been people responsible for all acts of terrorism done by Hindus. All this is now become apparent. People will have to choose whether the country is to remain united or divided.
“BJP is part of this conspiracy, (or else) why would they admit leader of Sri Ram Sene. Why would Suhsma Swaraj and others go an dplead to the PM not to put Sadhvi Pragya behind bars,” he said.
CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat lashed out at BJP and described Muthalik as a “criminal who led a mob to attack women”.
“The Modi wave is to get criminal, corrupt people into the party. That is why Jaswant Singh is raising questions. The message being given is that don’t trust BJP as far as women’s rights are concerned,” she said.
Muthalik has had a love-hate relation with BJP, which was evident when the saffron party had accused him of misusing Modi’s name for raising funds. He joined RSS in 1975 and Shiv Sena in 2005, but left the latter in 2006.
This is the first time he is officially being associated with the party.
Jaswant Singh decides to contest from Barmer independently
Upset over denial of ticket, former Union Minister and BJP veteran Jaswant Singh on Sunday said he has decided to contest the Lok Sabha elections as an independent from the Barmer seat and will file his nomination papers on Monday.
Jaswant Singh is upset for being denied ticket from the seat.
The BJP dumped his candidature and fielded Sonaram from the seat, who had recently joined the party.
Jaswant Singh said that he sees a kind of arrogance in the tone of BJP leaders.
He added that he was not furniture that he can be shifted from one place to another.
The former Minister in the NDA’s Atal Behari Vajpayee government was willing to contest from his home seat of Barmer, saying it would be his last Lok Sabha Election.
Earlier, Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj made it clear that the decision of not fielding senior leader Jaswant Singh from Barmer constituency of Rajasthan was not taken by the party’s Central Election Committee.
Speaking to media in Bhopal Sushma said that she was pained at denial of ticket to the Party veteran.
In what could stoke fresh controversy in BJP after the row over L K Advani’s ticket, the party replaced his loyalist and sitting MP Harin Pathak with actor Paresh Rawal from Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha seat.
In the list of fresh nine candidates announced on Saturday, Rawal’s name figured for the Ahmedabad East constituency, a seat being earlier considered for Narendra Modi himself.
Jaswant should accept party’s ‘no’ for ticket: Jaitley
As a sulking Jaswant Singh is set to contest from Barmer as an Independent after being denied a party ticket, BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday said he should accept the party’s ‘no’ with a smile after being showered with privileges and positions and that his loyalty is at test.
Jaitley’s apparent criticism of Singh’s move to contest as an Independent comes a day after his party colleague Sushma Swaraj Sushma said she was “pained” at the denial of ticket to Singh, which highlighted the differences in the party at the top.
“Membership of political party is a privilege. It is also an act of self oppression where personal views and ambitions are subjected to collective wisdom of the party. At times, the party may flood leaders with privileges and positions. On other occasions, the leader may have to take ‘no’ as an answer to his desires,” Jaitley wrote on his website.
He said the politician or leader denied a ticket must accept the decision with a “smile”.
“This becomes a test of his loyalty and discipline. Restraint and silence are always a preferred option. Over reaction may prove be a transient storm in a tea cup. Silence is always dignified and more gracious,” he said in an apparent reference to Singh without naming him.
Jaitley, contesting from Amritsar seat, said in election season, many political persons desirous of being candidates succeed in getting a party nomination, but many more get left out.
“A political party is built upon the support of millions of political workers who have sacrificed their time and energy without ever aspiring to hold elected office. What does a politician do when after a successful political career the party is unable to accommodate him once? That is when his discipline and political loyalty are to be tested,” Jaitley wrote.
Upset over denial of ticket, the former Union Minister today said he has decided to contest the Lok Sabha elections as an Independent from the Barmer seat and will file his nomination papers on Monday.
Singh, however, is not resigning from the party yet and said he would consult his colleagues before taking that step. Earlier too, Jaitley and Swaraj had given divergent views regarding the decisions of the party.
When Swaraj had opposed the entry of Karnataka leader B Sriramalu, Jaitley had said that “relatively marginal issues” of who is in or who is out are diverting the attention from the core issues of governance.
Swaraj, who had opposed the entry of Sriramalu – leader of Karnataka’s BSR party – into BJP, had made her criticism known publicly by tweeting.
“Relatively marginal issues such as declaration of candidates, particularly who is in and who is out, cannot be allowed to dominate the political agenda in the BJP. These issues divert the attention from the core issues of governance,” Jaitley wrote the next day on his website.