Sidelined for several years now, senior BJP leader IP Singh has been expelled from the party for six years for calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah as ‘Gujju thugs’.
This is the second time that action has been initiated against Singh. Earlier in 2012, he was suspended from the party for a brief period for opposing the entry of tainted and sacked leader of Bahujan Samaj Party, Babu Singh Kushwaha, in the BJP before UP assembly polls.
Bharatiya Janata Party state general secretary Vidyasagar Sonkar informed the media in Lucknow on Monday that IP Singh had been expelled from the party for six years for “anti-party activities” on the direction of party’s state chief Mahendra Nath Pandey.
Annoyed with the BJP over certain issues, Singh welcomed Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to contest from Azamgarh on Sunday on Twitter and even offered the SP leader his house in Azamgarh to start an election office.
Singh said that the people of Purvanchal were happy with the candidature of Akhilesh as they believed that he would develop the region. He also tweeted that Akhilesh would also end the caste and religion politics in the region.
Even after his expulsion, Singh attacked the Prime Minister and BJP national president, tweeting that “two thugs from Gujarat have ditched the north Indians for five years”.
Singh, who was a regular panellist of the BJP on news channels, was annoyed with the party. When all BJP leaders were prefixing the word ‘chowkidar’ to their tweeter handle, Singh refused to do so and instead wrote ‘usooldar’ (man of principles).