Lucknow, Jan 23 (IANS): The infighting within Bhartiya Janata Party's (BJP) Uttar Pradesh again came to the fore here Sunday, when three functionaries resigned from their positions to protest against appointment of former party chief Rajnath Singh's son Pankaj as a general secretary.

"We are at least ten years senior to Pankaj in the party and we have made out way up the ladder ; and here is this lad being imposed upon us from the top. This is not acceptable to us," declared state BJP secretary Daya Shankar Singh, who along with two of his co-secretaries, Santosh Singh and Ashwini Tyagi, have put in their papers in strong protest against the move.

Singh and his two colleagues were understood to have shot off a joint letter off protest to state BJP chief Surya Pratap Shahi with a copy to national president Nitin Gadkari.

The letter not only points out how the three office-bearers had struggled to rise to the state secretary level, but have also sought to draw the attention of the party leadership to what Gadkari has himself been telling people about his own rise from the grassroots level.

Daya Shankar Singh told IANS: "Gadkari ji has time and again told us that he made his way up through the mill - right from pasting posters on the wall. We would like to know when did Pankaj Singh ever do any work in the party."

Pankaj Singh was given the position of the party general secretary as compensation after he was denied a ticket for contesting next month's state assembly election.

Having failed to have his way with Gadkari for a ticket for his son, Rajnath Singh was understood to have moved heaven and earth to get Pankaj installed on a key position in the party organisation. The move is seen as a major showdown for Rajnath Singh, who had also been state chief minister as well as an union minister in the past.