War of words between Katiyar, Jaswant

The BJP office-bearers meeting on Friday witnessed heated exchange of words between party general secretary Vinay Katiyar and senior leader Jaswant Singh on the issue of leakage of Singh's controversial letter to the media.

The BJP office-bearers meeting on Friday witnessed heated exchange of words between party general secretary Vinay Katiyar and senior leader Jaswant Singh on the issue of leakage of Singh's controversial letter to the media.

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Katiyar asked Jaswant how the letter he tried to circulate during the party's last Core Group meeting was leaked to the media.

The letter, which demanded that there should be a link between performance and rewards among other issues, was withdrawn by Jaswant at the behest of senior party leader LK Advani.

"Jaswant shot back at Katiyar and said nobody had questioned his credibility in the last 44 years of his political career," a party leader present in the meeting told PTI.

Jaswant added that he was not answerable to anybody.

No sooner had this heated exchange subsided, Vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Mohammad Shahnawaz expressed their ire over the party maintaining silence over the hate-speeches of party leader Varun Gandhi in Pilibhit.

Naqvi, who lost from Rampur constituency in the Lok Sabha polls, was visibly angry and even objected to party president Rajnath Singh visiting Varun in jail.