New Delhi:
BJP president Rajnath Singh today faced some tough questions from senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi over reports that the party's prime ministerial candidate
Narendra Modi could contest the general elections from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, sources have said.
They said Mr Joshi quoted media reports on this at a meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee and asked why, if there has been no decision on this, has the party not issued a clarification. Mr Joshi is the sitting MP from Varanasi. He shifted to the constituency in 2009 after losing from Allahabad in 2004.
Mr Joshi was not the only one to pose hard questions at the meeting.
Sources said Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj wanted to know what process the party has followed in forging recent alliances and inducting politicians into the BJP.
Ms Swaraj questioned the alliance with Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan in Bihar. A top source said that when Rajnath Singh explained that the decision to partner with Mr Paswan was taken by the BJP's Bihar unit, Ms Swaraj asked what the role of the party's central leadership would be if state units would take such decisions.
She also objected strongly to the move to merge Karnataka's BRS Congress with the BJP. On Wednesday, Ms Swaraj had tweeted against the merger, which will bring controversial leader B Sriramulu, who is close to jailed mining baron Janardhan Reddy, back into the BJP.
Sushma Swaraj also reportedly voiced her opposition to alliances with "dodgy leaders."
She is strongly opposed to controversial Haryana politician Venod Sharma - whose son Manu Sharma was convicted for the murder of model Jessica Lal - joining the Janhit Congress Party, led by former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal's son Kuldeep Bishnoi. The move will give the former Congressman an indirect entry into the BJP-led NDA.
Ms Swaraj's public salvo aimed at cleaner politics has also created hurdles for the BJP which was exploring a tie up in Haryana with the INLD's (Indian National Lok Dal) Om Prakash Chautala, who is in jail over a recruitment scam.
In 2009, the BJP had failed to tie up with any regional party in Haryana and the Congress had walked away with all 10 seats.