Main opposition party BJP’s beleaguered president Nitin Gadkari on Thursday cancelled his trip to Delhi amid serious allegations of corruption and dubious funding involving his company Purti Power and Sugar Ltd.
According to reports, Gadkari will stay back in Nagpur after fresh cases of financial impropriety, involving a company – Ideal Energy- having business links with the BJP chief’s firm, surfaced.
Amid counter-attack from Congress and the Indian Against Corruption (IAC) led by Arvind Kejriwal, Gadkari yesterday got the support of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and veteran BJP leader LK Advani, who defended him, saying he had done nothing wrong.
While BJP maintained that Gadkari is ready to face any probe, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat reportedly asked him to come clean on charges of corruption.
However, he openly refused to comment on charges against Gadkari, calling it the BJP’s internal matter.
Coming out in Gadkari’s strong defence, party veteran Advani said, “Nitinji has come clean by asking for an inquiry by the Department of Company Affairs. It is a fair and proper response.”
Advani said in a statement on media reports questioning alleged dubious funding and other issues involving his company Purti Power and Sugar.
Maintaining that Gadkari’s response showed the difference in BJP’s attitude, Advani said the allegations against Gadkari were about “standards of business and not misuse of power or corruption.”
Advani’s defence of Gadkari assumes significance in the context of continuing media reports of the way his companies were being run and a shadow cast on a second term for him as party president.
However adding to Gadkari’s discomfiture, BJP MP Ram Jethmalani has demanded that he should quit the post and not seek a second term in office in the interest of the party.
It is to be noted that IAC has also sharpened its attack on Gadkari and dared the UPA government to book the opposition party president under the Prevention of Corruption Act for his alleged wrongdoings.
Kejriwal had maintained that fresh revelations made by leading media houses on Gadkari’s alleged corporate fraud have vindicated IAC’s stand that Congress and BJP were hand in glove on corruption.
Spelling trouble for Gadkari, the government has also announced to look into allegations of dubious funding in his companies which cast a shadow over him getting a second term as party president in December.
As embarrassing details tumbled out about the funding for Purti Power and Sugar Ltd run by Gadkari, Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily said, “As the information on the issue has come in public domain, the Registrars of Companies will “definitely inquire into it”.
Media reports have raised questions over the source of funds for Purti Power and Sugar Ltd controlled by Gadkari. Media investigations claim that major investments and large loans to Purti were made by a construction firm Ideal Road Builders (IRB) group, which had won contracts between 1995 and 1999, when Gadkari was PWD minister in Maharashtra. Gadkari has denied the allegations and offered himself and his companies to any probe.
–PTI