BJP's choice of former army chief VK Singh in Ghaziabad and actress Kirron Kher in Chandigarh on Tuesday sparked street protests from party activists in the areas.
In fact, even before the party went public with the name of Gen (Retd) Singh as its Lok Sabha candidate from Ghaziabad, a seat represented by party chief Rajnath Singh earlier, a number of BJP workers came out on the streets of Ghaziabad to oppose his nomination.
Nearly half-an-hour after Singh had reached the party's office in Ghaziabad on Tuesday evening, some workers raised slogans against him and a heated exchange of words broke out between supporters of the former Army chief and his rivals.
BJP workers waved black flags and threw eggs at the cavalcade of Kirron Kher when she reached Chandigarh after being nominated by BJP for the Lok Sabha seat, terming her as an "outsider". There has been resentment among a section of BJP workers ever since 58-year-old Kirron's name was announced by the party on Saturday as candidate for Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat. At a couple of places, the workers also raised slogans against her, claiming she was an "outsider".
They also created ruckus at the BJP's party office here later. A report from Lucknow said BJP workers staged a sit-in protest at the party headquarters there today demanding the party drop a reported move to nominate former Congress leader Jagdambika Pal for LS polls. BJP workers from Domariyaganj, Pal's Lok Sabha constituency, and its surrounding areas shouted slogans pressing that Pal, who recently quit Congress, should not be given a ticket to contest the poll.
The workers who also submitted a memorandum addressed jointly to state BJP president Laxmikant Bajpai and incharge of the state affairs, Amit Shah, recalling how Pal had engineered the fall of the BJP government of Kalyan Singh in 1998 and was later sworn in as chief minister.
To protest this unconstitutional act, the then leader of the opposition Atal Bihari Vajpayee had sat on a fast, they said and stressed that giving ticket to such a person would not be in the interest of the party.
BJP workers in Rae Bareli LS constituency also held a protest at the party headquarters demanding early announcement of ticket to one Ajay Agarwal who they claimed was working hard in the area and was a strong candidate against sitting MP, Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
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