New Delhi:In a sudden and dramatic last-minute twist, Nitin Gadkari, facing allegations of dubious funding of his company, was on Tuesday night forced out of the race for BJP President’s post and Rajnath Singh emerged the consensus choice for the office.
In a late-night development, Gadkari issued a statement opting out of the election scheduled for Wednesday, saying he did not want that allegations against him should in any way adversely affect the interests of BJP.
“I have, therefore, decided not to seek a second term as the President of BJP,” said Gadkari, who is expected to propose Rajnath Singh’s name on Wednesday.
The BJP Parliamentary Board will meet at 9.30 am to endorse Rajnath’s name and he will file his nomination papers around 11.30 am, party sources said.
Sources close to Rajnath said he was happy that the party has shown immense trust in him and that he has a challenging task in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.
62-year-old Rajnath, who had preceded Gadkari as BJP president till 2009, emerged the new choice at a hurriedly-called meeting of top leaders including Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu and RSS representative Ram Lal on Tuesday night.
L K Advani, who was dead set against a second term for Gadkari, was away in a place near Mumbai and attended a function with Gadkari but the two did not even exchange a word, reflecting the chill between them.
Rajnath Singh is also considered close to RSS and that appeared to have tilted the balance in his favour.
Gadkari, whose candidature was being strongly pushed by RSS despite reservations within the party, was all set for re-election before senior leader Yashwant Sinha decided to throw his hat in polls.
The move by Sinha, who had earlier demanded Gadkari’s resignation in the wake of allegations of impropriety by his firm Purti Group, forced change on the candidate. (PTI)