New Delhi, Aug 26 - After the veterans it is the regional leaders who are queering the pitch for the beleaguered Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with former Uttarakhand chief minister B.C. Khanduri Wednesday challenging the party's decision to sack him while rebellious Vasundhara Raje seems unlikely to quit as leader of opposition in Rajasthan in a hurry.

Khanduri, who was forced to step down as chief minister after the party's debacle in the April-May Lok Sabha elections, has in a letter to the party alleged that he was made a scapegoat and sacked in haste. The BJP lost all the five seats in the state.

He also expressed his anguish over not being invited to the BJP's three-day meeting in Shimla last week.

Khanduri's defiance comes amid continuing crisis in the BJP that has seen the sacking of former cabinet minister Jaswant Singh, a revolt in its Rajasthan unit and severe criticism of the party leadership by Rajya Sabha MP Arun Shourie.

Earlier, another former cabinet minister and senior leader Yashwant Sinha wrote a strongly worded letter lambasting the leadership for not analysing the poll results and rewarding leaders who should have been taken to task. The BJP's tally fell to 116 from 138 in the previous 2004 elections.

According to BJP sources, the Uttarakhand leader said he could have explained at Shimla the reasons the party was routed in the April-May Lok Sabha election when the BJP lost all five seats.