Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian Yogi Adityanath has resigned from the national executive of the party in protest against the unfair manner in which the ticket distribution was handled by the party's central leadership.
The BJP had released the list of 317 of tickets aspirants from Uttar Pradesh for the coming assembly election on Wednesday night.
Apparently, Yogi was furious over majority of his candidates had not being accommodated in the list. He has even threatened to resign from the party if the need arises. It may be recalled that the three-time parliamentarian from Gorakhpur had been arrested in January on charges of fanning communal tension and was released a week later.
However, senior BJP leaders refuse to give much importance to Yogi's alleged threats.
"We know how much influence he wields. He is adopting pressure tactics to get a couple of additional seats for his supporters. They all come with list of 50-60 but the real candidates are limited to five or six," a senior party functionary told rediff.com.
Meanwhile, BJP chief Rajnath Singh's son Pankaj, who was given the party mandate, has refused to contest in the Uttar Pradesh polls.
The party's central election committee is meeting in New Delhi on Thursday to finalise the remaining seats.
Of the 403 assembly seats, the BJP has left 50 seats for its allies, including United Janata Dal and Apna Dal.
