Raje attends NITI Aayog meet, but goes back to Jaipur without meeting either PM Modi or BJP president.
New Delhi : Apparently after getting a clean chit from the BJP leadership in Lalitgate, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was in and out of Delhi on Saturday for a NITI Aayog sub-group meeting but without meeting any Central leader or the media, triggering speculation that the party top brass wanted to avoid her.
She sped away without giving a chance to the media waiting at Delhi airport in the morning and gave a slip to the media waiting at Parliament Street gate of the NITI Ayog by her cavalcade using the back gate on Rafi Marg to let her take flight back to Jaipur.
She was here for a meeting of the sub-group of Chief Ministers on rationalisation of Centrally-sponsored schemes. Her quick return to Jaipur led to speculation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to give her audience as he did not want himself dragged into the controversy by meeting her.
BJP sources insisted that a meeting of the Prime Minister or the BJP president with Raje during her visit to the national capital was never discussed. They also said the two top party leaders did not meet most of the BJP chief ministers who were in Delhi for the meeting.
For the third consecutive day, she preferred to speak to the media only through yet another statement issued by her office in Jaipur to deny the electronic media reports that Modi and BJP President Amit Shah turned down her request for meeting and she was told to better return immediately.
It said: “Some channels continue to run false news. Request media to kindly cross check facts. CM was in Delhi solely for the Niti Aayog meeting. Later she returned to Jaipur for there were no prior appointments.”
Raje was avoiding any trip to the capital since after getting embroiled in the Lalit Modi controversy, but she decided to keep her NITI Aayog appoint only after party spokespersons went on record on Friday that the leadership has found no irregularities by her nor any wrong in the deals of her MP son Dushyant Singh with Lalit Modi.
Raje had reportedly sent her explanation to the party along with all the relevant papers and that settled the matter.
The party took the stand to fully back Raje alike foreign minister Sushma Swaraj who was also embroiled in the Lalit Modi controversy after trouble-shooter Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met the Prime Minister and the BJP President separately on Friday to work out the strategy.
Amit Shah met the Prime Minister later on Friday evening to discuss how to handle the future barrage of attack from the Congress and other opposition parties.
Meanwhile, Congress took a swipe at Narendra Modi over the row, accusing him of following “Raje dharma” and “not raj dharma” by shielding the Rajasthan Chief Minister and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who had also helped Lalit Modi in obtaining travel papers from Britain.
Hitting back, BJP secretary Shrikant Sharma said Congress is raking up “baseless charges” against its leaders and alleged that the opposition party is a symbol of “corruption and commission”. “BJP government does not have to learn ‘raj dharma’ from a party as tainted as Congress,” he said.
