BJP former MLA slams Yogi ‘for ignoring leaders’, quits party
MEERUT: Senior BJP leader and former Deoband MLA Shashibala Pundir slammed chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday for allegedly ignoring the party’s dedicated leaders and workers and showing more trust in officers. An angry Pundir has submitted her resignation to UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey and declared that she won’t take it back even if he rejects it.
“I am a Rajput by my deeds and value my words,” Pundir told HT over phone. She described Yogi as “a weak person, who is fit for offering prayers in temples and he doesn’t have the potential to be a good administrator.”
She alleged that officials were misleading Yogi. Citing the rule of Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh in UP, she said these two leaders always maintained a balance between bureaucracy and party workers, “But now party workers have no say.” Terming Yogi as a CM “borrowed from the Hindu Yuva Vahini” she said he did not heed repeated requests to withdraw cases against Dalits and Rajputs allegedly booked for the Shabbirpur (Saharanpur) clashes of May 2017.
“When over 6000 cases could be withdrawn from stone pelters of J & K then why few cases of Shabbirpur clashes can’t be withdrawn to restore harmony and brotherhood in the region,” she asked. Mentioning the plight of farmers of Jaroda Panda village in Deoband, Pundir said they have been demanding water for irrigation for years.
“They even boycotted the previous assembly poll to press for their demand and agreed to vote for BJP after she and other leaders assured them that their problem would be solved if BJP came to power,” she said.