BJP backs Gadkari Advani skips meet

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari’s woes don’t seem to end. Now, senior party leaders have openly demanded he step down from the top post, owing to allegations of financial irregularities against him.

The situation worsened before the meeting of the party’s core group this evening, with senior party leader L K Advani refusing to attend the meeting. This led to speculation he wanted Gadkari to step down from the top post before the end of his current term. Gadkari’s term as BJP president expires in six weeks.

Though leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and general secretary Ananth Kumar spent about an hour at Advani’s residence, persuading him to attend the meeting, Advani didn’t do so.

The BJP, however, chose to follow the dictum of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and back Gadkari as party president. “We had called S Gurumurthy for the meeting. He gave a detailed presentation on the allegations of financial wrongdoings by Nitin Gadkari. The BJP is of the view that Nitin Gadkari has done no legal or moral wrong and is ready to face an inquiry. We have full faith in the leadership of the BJP president and we ask the BJP leaders and cadre not to air views that would hurt the party,” said party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, while reading the joint statement issued by Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj after the meeting.

A day after Mahesh Jethmalani resigned from the party’s national executive committee, demanding Gadkari’s resignation, Mahesh’s father Ram Jethmalani, too, openly sought Gadkari’s resignation. He claimed senior party leaders Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Shatrughan Sinha also supported his demand and wanted Gadkari to step down as party chief.

Realising the magnitude of the conflict in the party, RSS asked its trusted lieutenant S Gurumurthy to study the accounts of Gadkari’s firms and try to convince Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh not to make public statements against Gadkari. Gurumurthy met Sinha and Singh and categorically told them there was nothing illegal in Gadkari’s account details, adding there was no reason for him to resign.

RSS, which favours a second term for Gadkari as party president, has also asked BJP leaders to carry out an internal probe to find out who within the organisation were responsible for the repeated allegations of corruption against him.

Earlier this year, a second presidential term for Gadkari was cleared by the party’s national council.

Meanwhile, Gadkari has also embarked on a damage-control spree, meeting Advani, Swaraj and Jaitley on Tuesday and trying to seek their support. After their meeting, Swaraj categorically said she supported Gadkari as BJP president. Gadkari also met other general secretaries of the party.

Later in the day, Swaraj and Balbir Punj, responsible for the party’s operations in Gujarat, met Advani to discuss the issues surrounding Gadkari. Party leaders Vinay Katiyar and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also met to discuss the allegations against the BJP president. Both said the allegations had taken a toll on the party’s anti-corruption movement.

Apart from allegations of corruption, Gadkari also faced resentment on his recent statement comparing the intelligence quotient levels of Swami Vivekanand and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. RSS has asked Gadkari to apologise for the statement and told him to be careful while making public statements.