Resign immediately: Ram Jethmalani to Gadkari

New Delhi, Nov 6: Stepping up further pressure,

today demanded immediate resignation of

President

and claimed three other senior leaders including Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha were with him on the issue.

"I am in touch with Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha (all Lok Sabha members). We seem to be on the same wave length. I don't presume to predict how they will... We are clearly of the opinion that resignation of the party President is imminently called for," he told reporters.

He said he had written to Gadkari and LK Advani on his and on behalf of other three leaders but refused to divulge the contents. Jethmalani, who first demanded Gadkari's resignation last month, said Gadkari should not be given another term as President since it would harm the party in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The recent BJP national council meeting had amended the party's constitution to enable Gadkari get a second term.

His son Mahesh, who is also an eminent lawyer, yesterday quit BJP national executive, saying he cannot be associated with it as long as Gadkari remains the party President. Jethmalani said there was churning going on in the RSS on the Gadkari issue and felt that the Sangh founthead has not backed him on the issue.

To a question on the statement by some in BJP that he should not have gone public with his demands, he said he had tried to discuss it internally but nobody in the party had called him for any discussion.

PTI