Jaswant Singh rules out going back to BJP

Expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Tuesday scotched speculation that he may rejoin the party saying "the roads are closed". "You don't have to worry about it. The roads are closed," he said when asked about the possibility of his getting back to the party.

Expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Tuesday scotched speculation that he may rejoin the party saying "the roads are closed".

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"You don't have to worry about it. The roads are closed," he said when asked about the possibility of his getting back to the party.

BJP's Deputy Leader in Parliament, Sushma Swraj, met Singh on Monday that had fuelled speculation that there could be a rapprochement between him and the party, although the meeting was said to have been for persuading Singh to quit as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.

On the PAC issue, he rejected BJP's demand to step down as Chairman saying a decision on this can be taken only by the Lok Sabha Speaker and not by it.

"I am not (going to resign). This cannot be a decision that the party can take because the determination of the post and the decision is that of the Lok Sabha Speaker and not of a political party," he told reporters in the Supreme Court premises on being asked about BJP asking him to resign from the post.

Singh, being the senior-most of the three BJP MPs nominated to the PAC from the party, was appointed the Chairman of the committee, days before he was expelled. The other two BJP members are Yashwant Sinha and Gopinath Munde.

As per convention, the Chairmanship of the PAC goes to a member of the main Opposition group in the Lok Sabha.