New Delhi: On Saturday embattled Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje came to the national capital to attend the Niti Aayog meeting. There was speculation that the BJP top brass, from Mr Amit Shah to home minister Rajnath Singh, refused to meet Ms Raje to hear her out. However, Ms Raje, in a statement, denied that she sought any such meeting Though Ms Raje categorically denied that she ever attempted to meet any leader, sources revealed that she had called up the home minister and wanted to meet him.
However, she was apparently told that “it would not be proper for her to meet any BJP brass at this juncture”. Back in Jaipur, Ms Raje kept avoiding the media and drove straight to her official residence. It was learnt that regardless of the outcome, the Modi government will wait till the Bihar polls before cracking down on the tainted ministers. Sources said that Ms Raje would not “relinquish the top post on her own and she will have to be removed”.
It was pointed out that after losing both the Assembly and the Lok Sabha polls in 2008-09, the party wanted to remove her from the post of Opposition leader.
“She refused to go, with 78 MLAs in her kitty, and now she has 163 legislators out of which over 100 of them are fiercely loyal to her. How can you expect her to go on her own?” a senior BJP functionary asked. Also, at this juncture, the Modi government and the BJP intends to send a signal even at the cost of their image that it would not be “dictated by media and Opposition pressure”, sources said.
It was claimed that action would be taken but at a proper time. Though a signal was being sent out that the government intends to “bring in Lalit Modi to try him in India”, sources said that an influential section both in the government and the party was not too keen. They fear that besides the Congress, a series of top BJP leaders and ministers could “get besmirched” in the controversy.
Over the last few days, Mr Lalit Modi’s tweets hinted at the involvement of some top BJP leaders who had “curried favours”. On the other hand, the Congress on Saturday demanded the resignation of Modi for his “helplessness” to act against the tainted ministers.
The Congress-led Opposition is expected to stall the functioning of the session of Parliament starting July 21. Taking a dig at Modi, Congress accused him of following “Raje dharma” and “not rajya dharma” by shielding Vasundhara Raje and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
