Senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue M.G. Vaidya has said that the former BJP president Nitin Gadkari was ousted due to an “internal political conspiracy.”
Writing in his latest blog post, Mr. Vaidya said, “There seems to be an internal political conspiracy over the turn of events preceding Gadkari’s resignation. The way the Jethmalani father- son duo started a campaign against Gadkari sometimes back, shows something. At that time Gadkari had not even received a single notice form any of the authorities, but to the Jethmalanis, Gadkari appeared as ‘ kalankit ’ [tainted]. But this kalank [taint] was not proved. After that Shatrughan Sinha and Yashwant Sinha also demanded Gadkari’s resignation. When all this was going on and I wrote it in my blog, I received a letter from Washington. The first line in that letter was ‘I am saddened by your support for Gadkari’. That letter cleared my doubts and made it clear that this was an internal conspiracy against Gadkari.”
In November last, Mr. Vaidya had created a sensation by blaming Gujarat CM Narendra Modi for running a campaign against Mr. Gadkari.
Congratulating Mr. Gadkari on not seeking re-election for the presidentship of the saffron party, Mr. Vaidya said, “Despite having the opportunity to become BJP president [for] the second time in a row, Gadkari decided to stay away from the election [for the post of BJP president]. Had there been an election, Gadkari would have won by 70 per cent votes but that would have exposed the rift in the party.”
“According to the BJP’s constitution, no person could get a consecutive second term as the party president. When it was amended, the amendment was seen to be for Gadkari. It may be, but a section in the BJP did not like this [amendment of the party constitution for Gadkari]. These people did not oppose it openly but from that moment, conspiracies against Gadkari were planned,” wrote the most senior swayamsevak.
“It’s true that Gadkari is related to the Purti group and played an important role in its establishment and progress. But suddenly, one section of the media started reporting news regarding irregularities in the Purti group. The government acted swiftly and announced that the alleged irregularities in the Purti group will be probed. Gadkari welcomed the probe but out of the blue Ram Jethmalani demanded Gadkari’s resignation. He did not think it wise to wait for the inquiry to complete,” added Mr. Vaidya.
Mr. Vaidya also expressed his hunch that all this ‘ masala ’ (material against Gadkari) was provided (to media and Government) by some senior BJP leader or leaders.
Making it clear that his November 11 blog post was to stop the infighting in the BJP, Mr. Vaidya said, “It seemed that my blog post of November 11 had an effect and these conspiracies stopped and paved the way for Gadkari to become the president for the second term. But some people did not want him to be elected unopposed. They systematically planted the news that Income Tax department raided the offices of the Purti group. This news was published two days before Gadkari was going to file his nomination. This is suspicious. Why did the government wake up so late? Why were they waiting for three months? Do the conspirators and the government have some relations with each other? Who will answer all this questions?”
Blaming the media for the campaign against Mr. Gadkari, Mr. Vaidya wrote “The media is the first winner [in ousting Mr. Gadkari] and the second position goes to the conspirators against Mr. Gadkari. The BJP was known to be a party with a difference but all this [activities against Mr. Gadkari] has given it an image of a party with differences. The new president of BJP has an opportunity to reform this image of the party. I hope everyone will help him [Rajnath Singh] now and the party will prepare for the election with unity.”
