BJP-RSS rift widens

New Delhi: The consequences of the Sanjay Joshi CD scam, that hit the BJP convention in Mumbai, is still being felt in the party ranks.

Till a couple of weeks ago, Sanjay Joshi was amongst the more powerful leaders of the Sangh Parivar. However, the BJP General Secretary had to resign after a video CD showing him in a compromising position surfaced.

The entire Drama has left the RSS top brass red faced. The RSS is reluctant to loan any of their Pracharaks to the BJP for they are afraid that they too may fall victim to the infighting within the BJP.

RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav says, "We feel that there was a conspiracy to malign the RSS. We don't know who is responsible for this."

With Rajnath Singh being elected the new party President, there were many in the BJP who thought that the friction with the RSS would come to an end.

However, senior RSS leader M G Vaidya's suspicion that it was top leaders of the BJP who had conspired against Sanjay Joshi has ruffled feathers again.

In the RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya, Vaidya had hinted that it was the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who had hatched the entire plot against Joshi.

BJP spokesperson, Prakash Jhawadekar says, "It was a weekly column and the views are Vaidya's personal opinions. The comments on Modi have nothing to do with BJP-RSS rift."

Just when Rajnth Singh was trying to mend fences and normalise relations between the RSS and the BJP, the observations by M G Vaidya even in his personal capacity seems to have thrown the BJP president on the back foot.