BJP top brass cold shoulders Raje

The source insisted that the Chief Minister went to Delhi only to attend a NITI Aayog meeting and that nothing else was scheduled in the national Capital. However, political analysts view her failure to meet the Bharatiya Janata Party’s top leaders as a snub. BJP sources said Raje, under attack from the opposition which wants her to quit, wanted to meet Prime Minister Modi, Shah as well as Home Minister Rajnath Singh to give them her side of the story on the Lalit Modi issue. “It seems that after being denied an audience by the top leadership, she felt it is better to come back to Jaipur,” said a BJP functionary on condition of anonymity.

“She will certainly try again to reach out to the central leadership, and may send her close confidants from here (Jaipur) to meet them in the next couple of days,” he added. The Rajasthan BJP is standing by the Chief Minister, saying that all the allegations hurled against her are baseless. Rajasthan Health Minister Rajendra Rathore has said: “The party is fully behind the chief minister. There is no question of her resigning.”

The opposition has ganged up against Raje, saying she signed a witness statement in support of Lalit Modi’s immigration application for Britain when he was being probed by the Enforcement Directorate. She was then the leader of the opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly. Ashok Parnami, the BJP state president said: “The document is not in official format of any UK court.

“The signed document is not a witness statement, and it was not presented in a court.”