Saswat Panigrahi
The central leadership of BJP has saved the party from
a disaster by dropping the idea of renominating Nitin Gadkari and electing
Rajnath Singh as president.
It was a done deal and Gadkari was almost on his way. The
RSS was intent on giving him a second term as if there was a dearth of talent
in the BJP. This, despite allegations of serious irregularities in the
financial transactions of Purti Power and Sugar Limited, a company headed by
Gadkari. A day before he was supposed to file his nomination papers, the Income
Tax Department launched ‘on-field inquiries’ into ‘shell companies’ that are
alleged to have invested in Purti group.
This prompted the BJP core group to discuss Gadkari’s
renomination as party president over several rounds of deliberations. Finally,
a majority of core group members of the party were in agreement that Gadkari’s
re-election would have an adverse impact on BJP’s performance in the next
general election.
