Raje's Office Accuses Media of Tarnishing Her Image, BJP Says No Crisis in Party

Senior cabinet ministers Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu dismissed suggestion of any wrong doing.

NEW DELHI: Even as pressure mounted on Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje following surfacing of documents purported to be carrying her signatures, her office termed the news reports “untrue and unsubstantiated”  and aimed at causing “political damage” to her.

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Senior cabinet ministers Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu too dismissed suggestion of any wrong doing. Jaitley said no one was tainted. while Naidu said there was no crisis in the party. “There is no corruption in the Government, nobody can put an accusing finger on this Government,” Naidu added.

Sources said the BJP was still studying the authenticity of the documents, while Raje is learnt to have indicated that signatures could be her, but as any affidavit carries signatures on all the pages, her signatures were not present on all of them.  While, maintaining a wait and watch approach, party spokespersons have been asked to brazen it out than give in to the Congress’ allegations.

Raje’s office out with statements denying media report. The statement dismissed speculation that she had convened a meeting of BJP MLAs considered close to her as a show of strength.

In a statement, the Chief Minister's Press Advisor Mahendra Bhardwaj said few electronic news channels were showing false reports.     "By tarnishing or damaging her image, the channels are causing political damage to Chief Minister...Electronic media should not run false news based on rumours. Such news are baseless and rumour-oriented, and before running such news, a confirmation and investigation should be required," the statement added.

Though, the BJP was studying the documents to prepare the defence, the party is still firmly backing Raje. "What is the impropriety in the case of Raje? These are only some documents. Their authenticity is yet to be proved. Did she testify before any court and before a judge? Has the UK government said anything?" party spokesperson Sambit Patra said in her defence.

"Even if we presume the documents to be true, we know that they had family relations," Patra added suggesting that party was accepting the signatures may not be fake.