A group of senior BJP leaders who quit the BJP protesting against “corruption” in the ruling party have floated a new party.
The Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP), formed late last week, will have Maheshwar Singh, a former MP, as its president. Among its top office-bearers would be former minister Radha Raman Shastri, besides leaders Shyama Sharma and Mohinder Sofat.
With the development on Friday, speculation is now rife in the state about the formation of a third alternative which could include dissidents from both the BJP and the Congress along with tie-ups with the Left and other political forces. Himachal Pradesh goes to the polls later this year.
It was earlier last week that a group of BJP leaders, led by Shastri, resigned from the party after accusing chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and state BJP president Khimi Ram of “promoting widespread corruption”, including illegal property transactions.
"We have decided to leave the party in protest against rampant corruption by the top leadership of the state," Shastri said. He charged Dhumal with being a "conspirator" who had destabilised the BJP and turned it into a "one-man show". The setting up of private universities has become a "roaring real estate business" run by the BJP leaders at the helm of affairs, he added.
Talking about land being allotted for setting up of private universities, Maheshwar Singh accused the government of putting out the entire state for sale. They said they were disappointed with national BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who had not looked into their complaints of corruption since the past three months.