BJP backs Vasundhara Raje, says she will stay as Rajasthan CM

Patna: Standing firmly behind Vasundhara Raje, who is embroiled in a controversy for allegedly having business relation with former IPL chief Lalit Modi, the BJP on Wednesday reiterated that she will stay as the Rajasthan Chief Minister. “Raje will stay as the Rajasthan Chief Minister and continue to serve her people,” BJP national spokesperson Syed Shahanwaz Hussain said, giving clean chit to Raje. [caption id=“attachment_2298524” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Reuters[/caption] Slamming the Congress for running a smear campaign against Raje out of its ill will towards her for making Rajasthan a Congree-free state, Hussain rubbished all charges of wrongdoing against the Chief Minister without going into details. On the charge against Raje’s son Dushyant Singh for acquiring a palace allegedly belonging to the state, Hussain claimed any dispute on the said property has been settled by the court and it has ruled that the multi-crore palace belonged to the Chief Minister’s son. “When the court has ruled in favour of Dushyant Singh on the palace’s ownership, why is the Congress playing politics over the matter?” the BJP national spokesperson asked. He further claimed even the Congress government in Rajasthan had acknowledged Dushyant Singh’s ownership right on the palace and gave him compensation in lieu of acquisition of land. On the controversy surrounding External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s husband Swaraj Kaushal in the wake of Modi’s last tweet about offering directorship to one of Swaraj’s companies, Hussain said that when the concerned person (Kaushal) had rejected such an offer, he should be appreciated and not sullied with charges that the Congress had been doing consistenly against the family. Giving a clean chit to the External Affairs Minister, who was accused by the opposition for helping out Modi in obtaining travel documents from the British authorities to visit his ailing wife in Portugal last year, he said that Swaraj had a spotless political career spanning over four decades. On the Congress pestering the BJP to come clean on their senior leaders’ alleged dealings with the controversial former IPL Commissioner, Hussain charged the main opposition party with playing ‘politics of muck’ and observed that the same muck had sullied its own senior leaders. Hussain was referring to Lalit Modi’s claims that he had interacted with some members of the Gandhi family and in a latest tweet dragged its President Sonia Gandhi’s name in a controversy. “Instead of asking us to respond to baseless allegations, they (Congress leaders) should respond to allegations being levelled against their leader,” the BJP national spokesperson asked. On Lalit Modi’s claim that BJP MP Varun Gandhi had met him to reportedly settle his issues with the UPA government through the Congress President, Hussain said the BJP leader has cleared the matter and now the Congress leaders and Sonia Gandhi should come forward to explain charge against her. On Congress’ demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi break his silence on controversies surrounding senior BJP leaders, the BJP leader outrightly rejected the demand and said that the Prime Minister has more pressing things to do and take the country on the path of progress. PTI