Expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaswant Singh will be leading a non-BJP, non-Congress group of MPs in Parliament, which seeks to play the role of a “critical opposition”.
"We are forming the group and will take the line of critical opposition to the government,” said Digvijay Singh, former Union minister and convener of the group — Lok Morcha.
Former Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari, MP from Chatra, is the deputy leader of the group, Singh said. He said he was elected the all-India convener of the Lok Morcha at its meeting held in Mumbai in August.
Replying to a question, he suggested that some other Independent MPs were also in touch with the group, which is currently also contesting some seats in the Maharashtra Assembly polls.
Raju Shetty, MP from Kolhapur district, is also part of the group and is leading the party in the Assembly polls.
Singh said noted journalists like Prabhash Joshi and M J Akbar were also associated with it.
Digvijay Singh, who was earlier in the JD(U), was elected as an Independent from Banka in Bihar.
To a poser, he said all the members of the group would soon be meeting Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to request her to treat it as a separate group in the House.
After his expulsion, Jaswant Singh had made it clear that he would not be going back to the BJP. He had claimed that his son Manvendra Singh had also distanced himself from the party.
