Vajpayee’s niece quits BJP, joins Cong in Raipur

Former national vice-president of the BJP and niece of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Karuna Shukla has resigned from the party today.

Former national vice-president of the BJP and niece of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Karuna Shukla resigned from the party on Saturday.

She was apparently upset after she was denied ticket besides being repeatedly ignored by the party. Shukla, who has served the party for 32 years, faxed her resignation to party president Rajnath Singh on Saturday.

The development ahead of the assembly elections has created ripples in the party here and is likely to put the ruling BJP in a dilemma. “When for the past couple of years the party is no longer finding any use of my presence, what’s the point of sitting at home carrying the party's tag”, said the disgruntled Shukla, ex-MP and former national president of BJP’s Mahila Morcha. Her resentment could be gauged from her statement made to media persons that the BJP was worse than the Congress.

The opposition Congress expects that the resignation will strike a blow to the BJP during an upcoming elections. However the BJP national general secretary and state-incharge JP Nadda told reporters that the issue would be resolved soon.