NEW DELHI,March24,2012: The BJP on Wednesday reversed its controversial decision to support Ashutosh Mishra's bid for a Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand, directing its MLAs not to support the NRI or anyone in the biennial elections to the Upper House from the state. The decision to remain on the sidelines in the Rajya Sabha polls came against the backdrop of resistance by senior party leaders like Yashwant Sinha and not before Mishra had discomfited the BJP by launching a frontal assault on the former Union finance minister L K Advani and former Himachal Pradesh CM Shanta Kumar. According to reports from Ranchi, Mishra, whose aspiration for a RS seat melted , attacked Advani for having praised Pakistan's founder M A Jinnah, and linked Sinha's opposition to the machinations of a corporate house, while calling Shanta Kumar a geriatric. The outburst stung the party into swiftly announcing the decision not to participate in the RS polls for Jharkhand. The decision was taken at a high-level attended by leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley, senior MP from Jharkhand Yashwant Sinha, general secretaries Ananth Kumar, Ravi Shankar Prasad and others.BJP president Nitin Gadkari went along with the prevailing mood instantly. Soon, a Mishra retired from the fray. "I would have won," the NRI claimed. He also disowned the attacks on BJP leaders attributed to him, saying that his statements had been distorted.
