Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Arun Jaitley is said to be sulking against an appointment made by Party President Rajnath Singh recently and did not attend the meeting of the Central Election Committee in New Delhi on Friday.
Jaitley is reportedly unhappy over the appointment of Sudhanshu Mittal, a businessman known for his high connections, as co-convener of North-East Affairs and is said to have registered his protest on the issue to the party leadership.
This virtual challenge to Rajnath, who appointed Mittal, has come at a crucial juncture when the BJP is reeling under the crisis of the break-up of the alliance with BJD in Orissa. Other NDA allies like Shiv Sena and JD (U) are also trying to extract their pound of flesh in seat-sharing.
Jaitley is the head of the Election Management Committee of BJP and is also considered a master strategist.
The eminent lawyer went about his work as usual but showed his defiance to Rajnath by avoiding the CEC, chaired by the latter.
In the morning session, Jaitley's office said he was in the Supreme Court and would attend the post-lunch session.
He attended the luncheon meeting with JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar at Advani's residence where NDA acting convener Sharad Yadav was also present. However, he kept away from the post-lunch CEC meeting.
When Rajnath was asked about Jaitley's absence, he refused to comment. Other leaders like Shahnawaz Hussain, M Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Kumar and Sushma Swaraj were also tight-lipped about Jaitley's absence.
Mittal was a close aide of Pramod Mahajan and is now close to Rajnath. His rivalry with Jaitley is said go back to Mahajan's days.
Party sources said Mittal was appointed BJP's co-convener of North-East region as he had played an important role in the party's tie-up with AGP in Assam.
Friday's CEC meeting finalised candidates for Lok Sabha seats of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala, West Bengal, Punjab, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.
Though Jaitley is in-charge of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, he has been involved in finalisation of candidates in other states as well. He was hailed as the one having the midas touch when he steered the BJP to victory in states like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.
However, he also drew flak for the party's defeat in Rajasthan and Delhi.
