Bharatiya Janata Party national vice-president and Rajya Sabha member Shanta Kumar regretted on Saturday that despite his demand, the BJP did not oust tainted party ex-president Bangaru Laxman, who was sentenced to four-year rigorous imprisonment in a bribery case.
"I had raised the issue in the BJP working committee meeting held after the incident took place and demanded ouster of Bangaru but still he was not shown the door by the party," said Shanta while interacting with media persons after presiding over a party workers' conference at Palampur.
"Had Bangaru been ousted at that time, the party would not have had to face such an embarrassing situation today," the former Himachal chief minister said.
"It is a painful day for me as our party had to face embarrassment because of a party president who indulged in wrong practices," said Shanta.
The senior BJP leader said that he regretted that Bangaru did such a wrong thing while holding a responsible post and secondly that "the party protected him on the issue".
Shanta said that had the party accepted his demand, it would have been able to say today that it had taken action against the person involved in malpractices and that he was not associated with the party. "But unfortunately, we cannot say this today as the party didn't take action on time," he remarked.
{{/usCountry}}Shanta said that had the party accepted his demand, it would have been able to say today that it had taken action against the person involved in malpractices and that he was not associated with the party. "But unfortunately, we cannot say this today as the party didn't take action on time," he remarked.
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