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| BJP Chief Whip in constant touch with Omar's close aide? | | More skeletons start tumbling out of cupboard | | Asif Iqbal Naik
JAMMU, Nov 24: In a significant development in alleged cross voting by 7 BJP MLA's in the 13 April 2011 election of six seats for Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council, more skeletons have started tumbling out of the cupboard.
Highly placed sources told Early Times that BJP Chief Whip Ashok Kumar Khajuria was in constant touch with political advisor of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Devinder Singh Rana (MLC) before scheduled date of council election.
As per the details revealed by these sources, Ashok Khajuria (BJP Chief Whip for Jammu and Kashmir) resident of 32-A Govt. Flats, Ahata Amar Singh Palace Road Jammu J&K-180001, BJP made several calls to Omar's political advisor Devinder Singh Rana on his mobile between 29-03-2011 to 11-04-2011.
Among these calls, two calls were made just ahead of the D Day i.e. on April 11, 2011 which is contradictory to the statement made by Ashok Khajuria to media persons in which Khajuria claimed that he was not in touch with any person associated with the coalition government.
Also necessary to mention that the BJP Chief Whip, Khajuria has many times categorically denied that he was even in touch with any coalition leadership over the telephone. Highly dependable sources confirm that Khajuria had lied on this score as he was in constant touch with Rana. Denial by Khajuria that he ever had telephonic conversation with any leader of the coalition government has raised serious suspicions over his role in cross voting scandal that has rocked BJP in Jammu and Kashmir.
The disclosures that Khajuria had been constantly having conversation with Divinder Rana obviously confirms that the two could not have been discussing the weather. These disclosures further strengthen the statement of Baldev Raj (MLA Reasi) in which Baldev Raj had claimed that Khujaria made mobile call to him at around 11 PM on 12-04-2011, in which party's chief whip Khujaria showed his apprehension of some wrong doings.
Baldev who is facing suspension had further stated that after listening to Khujaria's apprehensions, who advised him to abstain from voting scheduled to be held within a few hours, he had abstained from voting. Khujaria in a later interview had himself stated that he had already some apprehensions over the role of some of his members and he accordingly had brought the matter into the notice of the party high command monitoring the council elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Khajuria had said that in order to save his image from being tarnished he had shown his vote to the BJP agent even though the same is against the spirit of the election. In his interview Khajuria alleged that most among the expelled BJP MLA's have betrayed the party in the past as well.
The claims made by Khujaria that he was not in contact with any of the member of the ruling coalition have put a question mark over his role in cross voting scandal involving BJP as his claims are contradictory to his call details available with the sources.
It was after the cross voting scandal, the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir first expelled its 7 MLA from the party for six years including veteran leader Chaman Lal Gupta for their allegedly being involved in cross voting in favour of Congress/NC Candidate, the charges which were denied by Gupta and others. But after finding the support from party High Command and leaders like Arun Jaitely who openly supported the move of suspension of BJP MLA's for indiscipline during Advani's Jan Chetna Yatra in Jammu, the party on Friday 18 Nov expelled six of its remaining MLAs for defying the party whip and approached the Speaker to disqualify them from the House for cross-voting in the Legislative Council polling.
Those who have been expelled from the party with immediate effect are Bharat Bhushan, Gharu Ram Bhagat, Durga Das, Baldev Raj, Jagdish Raj Sapolia and Lal Chand while former BJP Legislature Party leader Chaman Lal Gupta has already been expelled from the primary membership of the party for six years for gross indiscipline.
Gupta was expelled on May 31 after seven of the 11 BJP MLAs voted for the NC-Congress alliance candidates in the April 13 polling for the Upper House. The political analysts are of the opinion that in case the call details of Mr. Davinder Singh Rana too could be scrutinized, the picture would be more clear tas to who exactly is behind the infamous BJP cross voting scandal in Jammu and Kashmir.
Worthwhile to mention that BJP chief whip Khajuria earlier hit the media headlines when he was termed among one who had cast his vote in favour of NC President Dr Farooq Abdullah in 2009 Rajya Sabha election held on 13 February 2009, which Farooq Abdullah won by a narrow margin.
At that time also the BJP bigwigs had brushed aside the matter by maintaining that one of their members had cross voted either in favour of the PDP or the ruling alliance as the party high command at that time preferred to down play the incident and later closed the matter without giving any justification. |
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