By IANS,
Jaipur : The Rajasthan unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday suspended two party legislators on disciplinary grounds for supporting former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who last week defied the party leadership’s directive to quit as leader of opposition in the state assembly.
“Two MLAs, Rajender Singh Rathore and Gyan Dev Ahuja, have been suspended from the primary membership of the party on disciplinary grounds,” Rajasthan BJP chief Arun Chaturvedi told IANS.
He said both legislators had defied the orders of party president Rajnath Singh by supporting Raje, who was asked to step down as leader of opposition in the assembly.
Chaturvedi added the decision to suspend the legislators had been taken according to the provisions of party constitution.
Rajnath Singh had asked Raje last week to resign from the post after the party’s debacle in the April-May Lok Sabha elections and the state assembly polls late last year.
Raje, former chief minister of the state, had refused to step down, stating that she alone could not be held responsible for the party’s poll debacle in the state.
The BJP’s tally of 21 seats from Rajasthan in the 2004 elections came down crashing to four in the April-May Lok Sabha elections, while it lost power in the assembly elections late last year, paving the way for the Congress’s return.