Nagpur/New Delhi:
BJP president Nitin Gadkari, beleaguered by corruption charges, will leave Nagpur this evening to campaign in BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh, which votes for its next government in November.
Mr Gadkari cancelled a trip to Delhi yesterday, as new media reports focused on the insalubrious credentials of his vast business empire, and the companies that have invested in it.
His party has defended him; so has its parent body, the RSS. But privately, sources say, a second term as president, that was about to be formalised, now appears increasingly unlikely. The RSS, which hand-picked Mr Gadkari as president in 2009, said yesterday that it has "no connection" to a second term for him as the BJP's top man. In that clarification, many see an omen of Mr Gadkari's political future. The Gadkari issue is not on the agenda of a meeting of the sangh in Chennai beginning on November 2, but RSS sources it is likely to be discussed.
Questions about ghost investors in Purti Power and Sugar Limited, co-founded by Mr Gadkari in 2000, were put to the BJP president on NDTV last weekend, when he appeared in its studios to refute allegations of illicit business deals. Some of the companies that have bought equity in Purti share bogus addresses; their directors have included his former driver, an astrologer and a baker. Yesterday, another NDTV expose highlighted that a firm that bought stake in Purti was a year later loaned money by Mr Gadkari and his firm, a move that usually would trigger an alert about money-laundering and round-tripping, which involves selling an asset with the understanding that it will be bought back, and is often used for tax evasion or money laundering.
Mr Gadkari quit as chairman of Purti last year. He now holds about 200 shares in the group. He has denied that some of the 18 investor firms in Purti are front companies.
In his defense, the party points out that Mr Gadkari welcomed and asked for an investigation on Purti. They say this is in sharp contrast to Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who has been accused of exercising his political connections to get windfall gains on land that he bought and sold in Haryana, where the Congress has been in government since 2004. Mr Vadra chose first Facebook and then a press statement to refute the allegations against him. A series of senior ministers offered elaborate defense of him before the government reportedly decided that it would not comment on the controversy.
Former BJP president Rajnath Singh offered a controversial opinion today about Mr Gadkari. "Forgive me, but Nitin Gadkari is not occupying a government post. There is a difference between a government and a non-government post...when we were in government we did not misuse power," he said.
That line is decidedly at odds with BJP veteran LK Advani, who said earlier this week that the party and its leaders must meet exacting standard of probity. Mr Advani also defended Mr Gadkari, by pointing out that the charges against him are about "standards of business and not misuse of power or corruption."