BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, reacting to Mr Ram Jethmalani’s letter to senior leader L.K. Advani, said: “I agree with Jethmalani’s sentiments, but do not agree with his methodology.” Neither Mr Shatrughan Sinha nor Mr Jaswant Singh were available for comment. The Gadkari camp is now contemplating disciplinary action against Mr Jethmalani.
Mr Jethmalani in his letter claimed that he had “maintained silence for more than a week as a result of our friend Guru’s (S. Gurumurthy) strong plea to me.”
At Tuesday’s core group meeting, it was Mr S. Gurumurthy, a noted chartered accountant and an RSS ideologue, who presented his views on the accounts and balancesheets of Mr Gadkari’s company.
Emerging from the meeting, BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad read out a joint statement issued by Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. The statement read: “There was no legal or moral wrongdoing by Nitin Gadkari and the party has full faith in leadership of Gadkari. The party also endorses his stand on facing a probe.”
A flurry of meetings ensued to take stock of the situation. Mr Gadkari met Ms Swaraj and Mr Jaitley to discuss the issue. Later, Ananth Kumar, Ms Swaraj and Mr Balbir Punj went to Mr Advani’s residence to discuss the issue.