Kirti Azad calls his suspension from BJP the party's loss, says he never called Arun Jaitley a 'chor'

New Delhi: Undeterred by his suspension from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Darbhanga MP Kirti Azad slammed the party for taking action against him. While claiming that he never indulged in any form of anti-party activities and pledged to fight against corruption in future, Azad added that he never called thr Finance Minister a "chor" (thief).

Azad was suspended on Wednesday evening by BJP president Amit Shah for indulging in "anti-party" activities. But the action comes in the wake of allegations levelled by him on Arun Jaitley for alleged corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).

Reacting to his suspension, a visibly angry Azad, who is in Ahmedabad, threatened to take the DDCA row to the next level and insisted that he had not indulged in any anti-party activity and termed the action as an unfortunate decision. He also threatened to fully expose the alleged corruption scandal in the DDCA.

"I have not received any suspension letter from the party president. It is unfortunate that I was targeted for speaking the truth. My fight is against corruption in the DDCA and not against any specific person," he said.

"I have been telling the party about this for the last 9 years. I never said anything against the party. I have never targeted Jaitley ji personally. My fight is against the irregularities in the DDCA and I will continue to raise this issue for the betterment of DDCA," added Azad.

He also dismissed claims suggesting his collusion with Congress and Aam Aadmi Party over the DDCA row. "I am not colluding with Congress and Aam Aadmi Party. They picked up on my concerns and I am not responsible for that," he said.

Concerned over Azad’s crusade in the alleged DDCA graft case, Amit Shah was left with no other option but to suspend him following Azad's charges against Jaitley.

Azad claimed that several dubious transactions took place during Jaitley’s tenure as DDCA chief. He demanded that it should be investigated by raising the issue in Parliament.

For the last few weeks BJP leaders were annoyed with Azad, for repeatedly raising the alleged DDCA scam both in and out Parliament, and alleging Jaitley had the knowledge about the corruption taking place.

The situation turned bitter after Azad went ahead with a press conference dragging Jaitley in the alleged DDCA scam and also making a small speech about the same in the Lok Sabha soon after the Finance Minister rubbished all the accusation.

The BJP central leadership was very angry with Azad for reportedly turning down Shah's request to not take up the DDCA issue further.

They also suspect that Congress President Sonia Gandhi might have prompted Azad to rake up the issue. Jaitley had hinted that the cricketer-turned-politician (Azad) had met Congress President Sonia Gandhi to fix him in the case.