BJP leader Nitin Gadkari was conspicuous by his absence at the core committee meeting called on Thursday by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in his capacity as party campaign chief. Modi held his first core committee meeting with state leaders to discuss matters related to parliamentary polls.
After Gadkari’s absence at the meet raised several eyebrows, he quickly issued a clarification that he was held up for a visa interview for Norway and assured that he would join Modi at another function in the evening. And he did turn up at the book launch of Vinay Sahasrabuddhe’s ‘Beyond A Billion Ballots’ here where Modi addressed the gathering.
Gadkari has several reasons to be miffed with Modi. Last year, when the BJP was to ratify the move to Gadkari a second term as the BJP president, Modi refused to attend the meeting here until the former shunt out his rival Sanjay Joshi from meeting. Modi joined them only after Joshi’s invitation was withdrawn.
Moreover, senior RSS ideologue M G Vaidya suspected Modi to be behind Gadkari’s Purti scam.