NEW DELHI: Former tainted BSP Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha, who was recently inducted into the BJP, has asked the saffron party to put his membership on hold until charges levelled against him were cleared.
Kushwaha, whose induction has led to discontent, in a letter to BJP president Nitin Gadkari, has argued that “he’s being targeted as he had exposed the Union Government’s ‘conspiracy’ to earmark 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities out of the total OBC reservations.”
“I don’t want the BJP to be unnecessarily targeted due to the campaign against me. Until I am cleared of the charges that are being levelled against me, I will keep my BJP membership on hold,” he wrote in the letter.
Kushwaha, who has been charged in the National Rural Health Mission fraud case, further argued in the letter that “he has no criminal background” and that “he’s being hounded due to political reasons.”
“I am innocent in the cases that are being mentioned as related to me. No charges had been framed against me yet. I am being framed and I am ready for a probe by any impartial agency,” he wrote in the letter.
He said that he had been hounded by the BSP Government of UP and the Congress-led Central government, using the CBI as an instrument.
He further added that he could continue to fight for the backward class, and appealed to his fellow workers “to support the BJP in its bid to keep the OBC quota intact”.