BJP expels former Lok Sabha MP Premchand Borasi when he already resigned

NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday expelled former Lok Sabha MP Premchand Borasi “Guddu” from the primary membership of the party on charges of “indiscipline” after he criticised ex-Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who joined the saffron outfit in March.nnBorasi, a former Congress leader, had been criticising Scindia since the last few days for which the party issued him a notice on May 19, BJP sources said.nnHis statements against Scindia in the print and electronic media were seen as an act of indiscipline and he was asked to give an explanation in seven days, the sources said.nnHowever, the former Lok Sabha MP from Ujjain, from where he was elected in 2009 on a Congress ticket, did not respond to the notice.nnThe BJP’s Indore district unit (rural) president Rajesh Sonkar told PTI that Borasi was expelled from the party’s primary membership by Madhya Pradesh BJP chief Vishnu Dutt Sharma on Wednesday for not responding to the notice within the stipulated time.nnThe former MP termed the move as meaningless and claimed he had left the BJP more than three months ago.nn”I had written to the MP BJP president clarifying that I had resigned from the party’s membership on February 9, much before the formation of the BJP government in the state on March 23,” Borasi said.nn”By expelling me now, the BJP is making an attempt to malign my political character. I will file a defamation case against it,” he said.nnBorasi, considered close to senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, had spent a long time in the party before joining the BJP.nnSources close to Borasi said he would return to the Congress next month.nnIt is being speculated that the Congress may field Borasi from the Sanver assembly seat in bypoll against Tulsi Silawat, a Scindia loyalist and minister in the BJP government. Bypolls are due in 24 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh.nnBorasi left the Congress in 2018, just a few days before the assembly elections, along with his son Ajit and joined the BJP.nnThe BJP fielded Ajit Borasi from the Ghattia (SC) assembly seat in Ujjain district in the 2018 polls, but he lost to Congresss Ramlal Malviya.nnSource: Press Trust of India