Terming “inappropriate” senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha’s blunt demand that party president Nitin Gadkari step down in view of the allegations against the Purti group run by him, the BJP appealed to him to reconsider his stance.
“Mr. Sinha is a senior leader of the party and all forums of the party are available to him. The party considers the statement issued by Mr. Sinha [demanding the resignation] as inappropriate. The party would appeal to him to reconsider his stand,” BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here on Tuesday.
Mr. Sinha’s statement could not have come at a more inopportune time for the BJP, which is gearing up to corner the government on a range of issues in the winter session of Parliament beginning on Thursday.
Moreover, the timing of the senior leader’s statement has surprised leaders within the party as the campaign against Mr. Gadkari had subsided after the party backed him in the wake of a ‘clean chit’ given by auditor S. Gurumurthy after a probe into the balance sheet of the Purti group.
The campaign against Mr.Gadkari — which began with allegations levelled by anticorruption activist turned politician Arvind Kejriwal —is being seen as a power struggle within the BJP with an eye on the next general election.
In a statement to PTI, Mr. Sinha said: “Whether our party president is guilty or not is not the issue today. The issue is that all of us in public life should be beyond reproach."
