IANS

New Delhi, Oct 24: After defying party orders for three months, former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Friday resigned as Leader of Opposition in the state assembly - but spewed venom against the party leadership for "humiliating" her.

Raje, sources said, met senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani before quitting and has written a letter to party president Rajnath Singh criticising the BJP's central leadership.

An angry Raje in her letter has raised questions about how senior BJP leaders conspired against her in Rajasthan when she was the chief minister, a BJP leader, who said he had the access to the letter, told IANS pleading anonymity.

Raje has accused the party leader of functioning in an "undemocratic way" and said she was left "humiliated" by the way party leaders had sought her resignation.

The BJP accepted her resignation which was tabled in a parliamentary board meeting convened to discuss the causes for the poor performance of theparty in the just concluded assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh.

"Her resignation was accepted. The letter to Rajnath Singh was also tabled in the parliamentary board meeting," the BJP leader said.

Raje's resignation has been a tricky issue for the party with the leadership asking her two months ago in August to accept moral responsibility for the BJP's defeat in the Lok Sabha and the assembly polls in the state and step down.

Raje also visited former prime minister and ailing BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his residence soon after the party accepted her resignation.

"Whatever I have to say I have said in the letter. I have always worked hard to promote women in Rajasthan," she told reporters outside Vajpayee's residence.

Besides the Raje issue, the BJP parliamentary board meeting was convened to discuss the causes for the poor performance in the assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh.