Facing charges of corruption, BJP president Nitin Gadkari got a reprieve when the party’s core group decided to rally behind him and declared it had “full faith in his leadership”. Despite the breather, though, a section of party leaders are against Mr Gadkari getting a second term after his current one ends next month. Senior leader L.K. Advani and Mr Gadkari himself were not present at the core group meeting.
A section of the BJP claimed Mr Advani was unhappy over the core group’s decision. These leaders claimed Mr Advani, who had quit the Lok Sabha after his name had surfaced in the hawala scam, wanted the BJP chi-ef to follow that example.
With speculation growing that Sushma Swaraj was trying to replace Mr Gadkari, the Leader of the Opposition tweeted: “Media reports that I’m not supporting Gadkari are false. I’ve always supported him and I reiterate my support.”
The BJP core group, which met for nearly two hours on Tuesday evening, virtually gave him a clean chit over alleged dubious funding for his company Purti Group.
Despite pressure mounted on Mr Gadkari to quit by a section of party leaders, including Ram Jethmalani, Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Shatrughan Sinha, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat apparently stood firmly behind him. The RSS sent a clear signal that the time had “not yet come” to dump Mr Gadkari. Those present at the core group meeting included Ms Swa-raj, Leader of the Oppos-ition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and party general secretary Ananth Kumar, among others.
Mr Gadkari came under fresh pressure when Mahesh Jethmalani quit the BJP national executive on Monday demanding his resignation. His father, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani, shot off a strongly-worded letter to Mr Advani claiming he along with Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha were “of the opinion that the continued presidentship of the party by Gadkari is a disaster for the nation and the BJP”.