The BJP on Monday expelled party leader and former UP minister IP Singh hours after he posted a controversial tweet against BJP’s top leadership while welcoming Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to contest from Azamgarh, his home district.

Singh, who said he was ready to offer his residence as Yadav’s election office in Azamgarh, has been critical of his party for some time now. “I believe Akhileshji’s decision to contest from Azamgarh would help develop this backward region,” he said annoying many in the BJP.

Soon after that, the UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey issued Singh’s expulsion order.

This is the second time that Singh has been expelled from the BJP. The first time was in 2012 when he had opposed the party’s decision to induct former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, then a close aide of the BSP chief Mayawati, into the party.

Kushwaha was named in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) irregularity case and Singh had opposed his induction into the BJP, which was subsequently put on hold.

Over the last couple of days, Singh has hit out at nearly all the top state and national BJP leaders and had added the prefix “usuldaar (principled)” to his Twitter handle at a time when nearly all top party leaders had added “Chowkidar (watchman)” in keeping with the BJP top leadership’s decision to go into the polls with the “main bhi chowkidar” slogan.

“Today my innings in the BJP has ended for raising the issue of internal corruption in the BJP,” Singh tweeted later.

First Published: Mar 26, 2019 01:27 IST