Barely a month after the BJP failed to win a single ward in the civic polls in Ladakh, BJP Member of Parliament Thupstan Chhewang, 72, who resigned from the party earlier, has said that his “position became morally and politically untenable because the Centre failed to deliver on promises made during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls”.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Chhewang said: “All my pleas fell on deaf ears. Our leaders failed to logically explain the reasons for the delay in executing our electoral assurances.”

UT status

Mr. Chhewang mentioned the issues of Union Territory status for Ladakh and inclusion of Bhoti language in the Eight Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which remained unfulfilled in the past five years.

“The Central party leader incharge, Ram Madhav, and the current State leadership made matters worse by repeatedly rubbing salt into the wounds. It was strange to contest all the seats in the Kargil Hill Council polls and waste money and time. By this, we wasted a chance to win half-a-dozen seats,” he said.

“What could you [PM Modi] tell the people now? What was achieved five years ago was on the strength of slogans, which would sound like empty rhetoric this time,” said the BJP MP.

Yet to be accepted

Mr. Chhewang’s resignation is yet to be accepted by the party and the Speaker. “I had decided to keep my resignation from the party and the Lok Sabha low-key as my intention was never to score a political point. However, I’m constrained to give vent to my feelings now in view of the propaganda being indulged by State president about me writing letters to the Central party leadership ‘for one year’, expressing my willingness to quit active politics and opting for spiritual isolation… this is far from the truth.”

He said the BJP “exposed itself to the charge of making false promises even on sentimental issues”. “These are examples of the total absence of application of mind with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections round the corner,” he added.

Major setback

His exit from the party will come as a major psychological setback for the party in the landlocked region of Ladakh, which voted for a BJP leader for the first time in 2014.

The performance of the party came under criticism when it failed to win any ward in the two municipal committees of Kargil and Leh, comprising 26 wards, in October. The party managed to win just one seat in the recent Ladakh Hill Development Council, Kargil, elections.