Parivar embraces Modi after Sangh veteran blames him for Gadkari row

The Sangh Parivar and BJP denied on Monday that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had a hand in encouraging the allegations that BJP chief Nitin Gadkari was involved in improper business practices.

RSS veteran M G Vaidya fanned the perception of a power struggle within the BJP with his remarks on Sunday in a Marathi blog that the "needle of suspicion in the campaign against Gadkari points to Modi". Both the Sangh and BJP rejected the "insinuation" Monday; Gadkari himself issued a statement saying the claim was "totally unfounded".

"The BJP completely rejects such insinuation," Gadkari said, referring to Vaidya as a "senior journalist" and avoiding reference to his association with the RSS altogether. "All central leaders of the party and its chief minister have been working cohesively and unitedly for the cause of the party.

We are fighting the Gujarat assembly elections with complete unity of purpose and total mutual confidence," he added.

RSS publicity chief Manmohan Vaidya also issued a written statement dissociating the Sangh from M G Vaidya's views. "This is not the official view of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh," said Manmohan Vaidya, incidentally M G Vaidya's son.

"Modi perhaps feels that as long as Gadkari is party president, his dream of becoming PM wouldn't fructify. He could also be feeling that just as he was able to tame Sanjay Joshi, he would be able to tame Gadkari too. And for that he could be using (Ram) Jethmalani. Of course, all of that is speculative (he sare andaj ahet). It may have been born out of misunderstanding and prejudice," Vaidya wrote in his blog. Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani had earlier sought Gadkari's resignation over the allegations against him, and said that the BJP should project Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

"I have said it is a suspicion. I haven't affirmatively concluded anything about the possibility of Modi being behind the anti-Nitin Gadkari campaign in the BJP. All I have said in my blog is that the turn of events as witnessed in Ram and Mahesh Jethmalani's outburst against Gadkari, and Ram Jethmalani's suggestion to make Narendra Modi the party's prime ministerial candidate, turns the needle of suspicion towards Gujarat and Modi," Vaidya told The Indian Express.

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