The will he-he wouldn’t debate in the BJP spilled into the open on Wednesday, with former vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat hitting out at party president Rajnath Singh for questioning his willingness to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Shekhawat said the BJP chief “had no right to talk about my candidature when I quit the party before entering the vice-presidential election in 2002”. However, he ruled out launching any regional party of his own.

Shekhawat also landed up in Delhi late on Wednesday night and plans to meet former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee tomorrow. The issue was also discussed by the party leadership on Wednesday after they had finished a workshop to train spokespersons drawn from all state units.

“What Mr Rajnath Singh said about my Lok Sabha candidature, when I am not in the BJP for the last seven years, is not in keeping with the position he holds,” Shekhawat told Express.

Earlier, Rajnath had ridiculed Shekhawat’s statement that “health permitting” and “people willing”, he could contest the elections. “Those who have taken a dip in the Ganga do not go for a swim in the well... Someone who has held a constitutional position doesn’t enter the electoral fray,” he said at a function at the party headquarters.

Shekhawat had earlier told this paper that “like former Governor General C Rajagopalachari, he saw nothing wrong in those holding constitutional posts taking to active politics”.

With rumours doing the rounds of Shekhawat seeing himself as a prime ministerial candidate, the former vice-president said he had “never opposed” L K Advani’s candidature. “It’s the BJP which took my Lok Sabha announcement as some kind of intent of expression for the prime ministerial position.”

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