With the aim of aligning its disgruntled Members of Parliament ahead of the July 22 vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday revoked the suspension of Vallabh Bhai Katheria, party MP from Rajkot.
Party president Rajnath Singh had taken back the suspension of Katheria with immediate effect, a press communique from the BJP said. No reason was specified by the party for the move.
The BJP has 130 MPs in the Lok Sabha and with the vote of confidence likely to be a close call, it is not taking chances of any disgruntled MP defying the whip and crossing over. The BJP has already issued a whip to its MPs to vote against the United Progressive Alliance government in the trust vote.
Katheria was suspended for anti-party activities in December last year when assembly elections were on in Gujarat.
Action was taken against three other MPs, including Keshubhai Patel, at that time. This was reportedly done at the behest of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.