Zee Media Burea/Ajith Vijay Kumar
New Delhi: BJP’s troubles with Ram Jethmalani increased on Monday after the maverick lawyer slapped a defamation case against members of the party’s parliamentary board over his expulsion in May 2013.
As per reports, Jethmalani has alleged that the decision by the BJP parliamentary board to expel him was driven by malice and desire to defame. He has sought a compensation of Rs 50 lakhs from each member of the board barring Narendra Modi and the ailing former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Jethmalani is very close to Modi and has been one of his biggest supporters in the race to be prime minister in 2014. Vajpayee does not attend the board meetings owing to his ill health.
Jethmalani had moved the Delhi High Court on October 5.
The parliamentary board is BJP’s highest decision making body and has 11 members – Rajnath Singh, LK Advani, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Narendra Modi, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely, Ananth Kumar, Venkaiah Naidu, Ramlal and Thawarchand Gehlot.
The noted lawyer has termed his expulsion as arbitrary and hence demanded that it be declared null and void as the issue of breach of discipline does not fall under the preview of the board.
