TNI Bureau: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has rallied behind party President Nitin Gadkari and backed him completely on the allegations made by a section of media. The BJP’s joint statement issued by Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley issued gag orders on all party leaders and cadres, asking them not to air their views in public.
BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad read out the statement before the media after a 90-minute meeting of the core group this evening. The BJP reposed faith in Gadkari and rejected all allegations against him, calling those as a media trial. The BJP also pointed to the fact that Gadkari has offered himself for a probe against all allegations.
Senior RSS leader and leading Chartered Accountant of the country, S Gurumurthy has presented some documents at the meeting to prove that Gadkari had done no moral or financial wrong and that he had nothing to do with the 18 investors, who invested in Purti Group.
Despite of the latest development, the crisis within the BJP is far from over. Veteran LK Advani had skipped the core group meeting, as he did not want to be a part of the decision. Some other leaders such as Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha may not keep quiet for long and raise this issue again. Also, BJP MP Ram Jethmalani, who started the debate in the party, may speak out again in the coming days.