New Delhi:
The BJP's choice of recruiting new leaders in Uttar Pradesh has not impressed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the party's ideological guide.
The RSS, in an editorial in its Hindi publication Panchajanya, has urged people in Uttar Pradesh not to elect candidates who have criminal cases against them or have a record of changing their parties frequently.
The organisation says all political parties lack internal democracy.
The RSS's comments may embarrass the party which is already under criticism for welcoming former BSP leaders Babu Singh Kushwaha and Badshah Singh, both removed by UP chief minister Mayawati on corruption charges.
The decision, widely perceived to have been made by party president Nitin Gadkari, has divided the BJP into two camps.
One is backing Gadkari on the grounds of "social engineering" and the other against it, believing it will damage the party's high decibel anti-graft campaign.
Kushwaha is a leader from the other backward classes (OBC). The BJP is hoping to get the non-Yadav OBC vote, especially after the OBCs lost some of their quota to backwards among minorities.
Kushwaha himself said he was against the OBC share being given to minorities. He added he was ready for any probe on graft, but dubbed the CBI "selective".
Singh is a Thakur from Bundelkhand, where Rahul Gandhi is trying to gain a foothold and which is also an area Mayawati has promised will be given full statehood in her plan to split UP into four parts.