Fissures within BJP over IPL-gate

Differences within the BJP over the handling of the Indian Premier League (IPL) issue surfaced in parliament on Friday.

There were differences over setting up of a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe IPL funding and over seeking resignation of two Union ministers — Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel.

While some BJP leaders demanded resignation of the Union ministers belonging to the NCP, the party restrained itself by saying “clinching evidence” was required before seeking any minister’s ouster.

Party’s former Union minister Yashwant Sinha demanded that Pawar and Patel should step down as their kin were alleged IPL beneficiaries.

Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj reportedly insisted that the party should force abandoning of the question hour on the IPL issue and demand a JPC. This was in contrast to the party’s earlier line when it refused to join hands with the Left on asking for a JPC.

Swaraj wanted to expose the nexus between Congress and NCP. She was reportedly disturbed over leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha and party colleague Arun Jaitley maintaining silence on IPL.

Jaitley is a member of the IPL governing council and a BCCI board member.

The BJP leadership in Rajya Sabha felt that the issue of telephone tapping of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was more serious.

Stage was set to raise the issue both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and NDA partners were also roped in. But when the BJP core group met on Friday morning, Swaraj punctured this plan.

The BJP walked out of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha over IPL.