The BJP top brass on Tuesday held a series of meetings to decide on its beleaguered president Nitin Gadkari’s continuation as party chief following the allegations of financial wrongdoing levelled against his Purti Group.
The following is the list:
10 am to 2 pm
1) In the morning, Gadkari met senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj at her residence, other leaders present at the meeting was Gujarat in-charge Balbir Punj, party secretary Ram Lal and Murlidhar Rao.
Gadkari then heads to BJP leader Arun Jaitley’s residence. At 12.30pm he was again spotted going to Sushma’s residence, following which he headed to senior party leader L.K Advani’s residence.
2)BJP MP Ram Jethmalani causes a lot of embarrassment to the party by demanding the resignation of the party president on Tuesday afternoon during a televised news conference. He said that fellow BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha, Jashwant Singh and Shatrughan Sinha were supporting him in his demand
3)Tuesday also saw RSS ideologue and ace trouble-shooter Gurumurthy trying to sort out the mess in the BJP. He met Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant besides calling on L K Advani.
2 pm to 5 pm
1)Nitin Gadkari issues a public apology
2)Sushma Swaraj ‘tweeted’, “The reports that I am not supporting Nitin Gadkari are absolutely false. I have always supported him and I reiterate my support,” she said
3) Gurumurthy meets Jethmalani; makes an effort to bring about a truce.
4)Sharughan Sinha speaks to media says he is supporting Jethmalani in demanding Gadkari’s resignation.
5)BJP president calls ‘core group’ meeting at 5 pm
5 pm to 9.15 pm
1)BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Ananth Kumar and Balbir Punj meet L K Advani at his residence.
2)Advani indicates that he may not attend the core group meeting.
3)Core group meeting starts at 7.30 pm at the BJP headquarters on Tuesday evening. 4)9.10 pm: Meeting gets over. Gurumurthy said at the meeting that Gadkari had no involvement in the 18 holding companies of the Purti group, which he co-founded.