Rajasthan BJP comes out in support

Jaipur, June 26

The Rajathan unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party put its weight firmly behind its beleaguered leader, Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje, even as the war of words over her support of former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi escalated on Friday.

Raje has dismissed reports of a signature campaign she was supposed to have begun to show she had the support of 120 MLAs.

State BJP president Ashok Parnami has termed the allegations unfounded and accused the congress of concocting them to sully Raje’s image.

"Congress is indulging political vendetta against her and targeting decades-old family relations between her and Lalit Modi," Parnami said.

He insisted that the affidavit in support of Modi that had Raje’s signature was a draft that was never presented before any court in UK, 

The allegations that the “draft” was deliberately concealed were as part of Congress’s campaign against the leader, he claimed. Parnami said it was written deliberately "so that the ugly face of revenge by Congress against Raje did not come before the international media, which was a clear possibility in the surcharged political atmosphere at that time (in 2011)."

Raje’s office has claimed the MLAs in question had come to one of Raje’s  "jansunwai" (public hearing), which she holds at her residence every Friday, to discuss problems plaguing people.

"The news of signature by 120 MLAs (in her support) is completely wrong. It is not fair to link public hearing with a different view", he said.

The CMO said the Chief Minister never asked or made any call to MLAs to show their strength and support. PTI