New Delhi : This may come as a shocker to many in the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. A central minister’s private assistant was compelled to tender his resignation and two members of Parliament pulled up for wishing happy birthday to PM Narendra Modi’s bête noire Sanjay Joshi.
Joshi, who wielded much clout as organizing secretary in the BJP, always has dozens of visitors from the party and parivar, despite being in the wilderness after his ouster.
His supporters decided to make a gala event of his birthday on April 6. However, this did not go down well with a section of the organization. A senior office bearer was asked to prepare a list of those who went to wish Joshi in his North Avenue residence. An old party worker, Nitin Sardare, who was private assistant to Minister of State Shripad Naik, was among them. Sardare had to quit his job after being directed to do so by the central leader. A copy of his resignation was sent to party chief Amit Shah and organizing secretary Ramlal for record.
Top sources told this correspondent that the list of visitors included senior party leaders and MLAs from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
While it is not clear whether any action was initiated against them, the two Delhi MPs, Manoj Tiwari and Ramesh Bidhuri, had to explain their presence at the birthday bash.
Sources said the BJP top leadership was irked by the huge posters and hoardings put up by Joshi’s supporters all over central Delhi wishing him on his birthday. Efforts to send a strong message to such supporters were also made in the past whenever they put up posters claiming their faith in Sanjay Joshi’s leadership.
