HAZARIBAGH (JHARKHAND): A day after his “letter bomb” rattled the BJP, senior leader Yashwant Sinha on Sunday said that quitting all party posts took the “load off my chest,” but made it clear that he would remain with the BJP.

He said he was “happy” that his resignation was accepted.

“It is just like getting the load off my chest,” Mr. Sinha told PTI here when asked how he felt like after resigning as the party’s vice president and from other posts.

“I will not say anything more. I will not give any opportunity to the party high command to gag me,” he said when asked about his future plans.

“I had sent my resignation to be accepted. Therefore, I’m happy that it has been accepted,” the former Union Minister said at his residence here.

Quoting from his four-page letter to party chief Rajnath Singh, he said he would continue to serve as a party worker. “I will serve as a BJP worker, and that is my promise.”

Mr. Sinha quit all party posts on Saturday, charging the leadership with not taking the responsibility for the poll debacle in what was seen as criticism of the prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani and Mr. Rajnath Singh.

Mr. Sinha, who was apparently upset at the party’s chief election strategist Arun Jaitley being made Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said in the letter: “It is difficult to avoid the impression that in the BJP we put a premium on failure.”

“I have started visiting panchayats to know the local- level problems so that I could address them on priority,” said Mr. Sinha, who represents Hazaribagh in the Lok Sabha.

In his letter, he raised questions over the leadership’s “reluctance to introspect comprehensively and openly” the electoral defeat that has shaken the party.

Mr. Sinha, who raised the banner of revolt against Mr. Advani in 2005 too during the Jinnah controversy, said “I am getting a sinking feeling that once again there is a conspiracy of silence. We are shying away from pinpointing our weaknesses and fixing responsibility.” — PTI

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