Yechury says controversy surrounding Home Minister's son is BJP's internal matter

Emphasizing that the ongoing controversy surrounding Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh's son Pankaj Singh suggested that there is infighting within the BJP, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday said it is the saffron party's internal matter.

"What do I say on this, I think the Prime Minister must make it clear, or we must wait for another tweet from him (PMO). Nowadays, there is no dialogue and a trend of monologue is going on," said Yechury.

"The infighting within the BJP is quite evident. It is their internal matter which they should solve within themselves," he added.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) earlier in the day defended the Home Minister, describing reports of his son's alleged misconduct as 'plain lies' and 'a malicious attempt at character assassination and tarnishing the government's image'.

"This has reference to reports appearing in a section of the media over the past several weeks, mentioning the Prime Minister, and referring to the conduct of some Union Ministers, and alleged misconduct of the Home Minister's son. The reports are plain lies, motivated and constitute a malicious attempt at character assassination and tarnishing the image of the government," said a statement issued by the PMO.

"Those indulging in such rumour-mongering are damaging the interest of the nation. These reports are strongly denied," the statement further read.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister also denied reports about him and his family seeking political favours and said that he will quit politics if these allegations are found to be true.

"For the last fifteen to twenty days, there have been a lot of baseless rumours circulating. I thought I should not bother with it because rumours have no basis and they will die soon, but I have seen that the rumours are just growing. I want to assure the nation that the day any charges are proved against me or any member of my family, I will quit politics that day and sit at home," Singh said.

"I have even talked to the Prime Minister, who too has expressed his incredulity at my predicament," he added.

Rajnath is upset after reports in the media claimed that the BJP reportedly overlooked Pankaj, who was seen as a frontrunner for the Noida seat in the Uttar Pradesh bye-polls. There was also a report that the latter had approached the party leadership to guarantee him a seat to contest in 2017 assembly elections.