Gadkari row: Renewed pressure from within BJP on the party chief to resign

New Delhi: The trouble for BJP President Nitin Gadkari is more within than outside. One after the other, senior party MP's have sought his resignation in the wake of allegations against Gadkari's Purti Group. And the latest ones alluding that Gadkari's wife and sons held shares in three Purti shell companies, attempt to debunk the clean chit by RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy on the basis of whose in-house investigation. The BJP and the RSS have so far stood by the party president.

Gurumurthy through his tweets once again sought to explain the matter. He tweeted, "That Mehtas have written to the IT dept owning these 3 companies, like they have owned the 14, is very critical." Gurumurthy's argument so far has been that it was Manish Mehta who was behind the shell companies and not Gadkari.

Quite interestingly, the recent attack within the party first by Yashwant Sinha and then Shatrughan Sinha comes just when the RSS made its first move to test waters in Delhi. Still backing Gadkari, four top RSS leaders met a BJP leader over dinner last week and broached the topic of Gadkari's renomination as the party president.

The RSS suspects that tirade against Gadkari is linked to the unresolved leadership issues within the BJP - especially in the light of BJP recently ammending it constitution making Gadkari eligible for the second consecutive term when the first one ends in December, 2012.

Of the leaders named by Ram Jethmalani, who he claimed wanted Gadkari to go, Jaswant Singh is the one who has so far remained silent. The trouble for Gadkari it seems is yet not over and on Tuesday when the BJP parliamentary party meets, some feel it would provide a ideal forum for the dissidents to revisit the issue.

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