Gurumurthy tweets on Gadkari, BJP avoids issue

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The BJP's internal-rift over party chief Nitin Gadkari's business dealings continued Tuesday with RSS ideologue S. Gurumurthy's varying versions on giving him a clean chit and the party avoiding the issue.

The Congress said the clean chit had 'no meaning'.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters: "We will discuss it later." His remark came after Gurumurthy's varying tweet messages on giving Gadkari a clean chit emerged.

On Tuesday, Gurumurthy said in a tweet: "Let me clarify that I have given clear chit to Gadkari on Purti affairs. That is all...I have deleted only the tweets they (media) are misinterpreting. not all."

Media reports attributed to an earlier tweet of his said that he had not given a clean chit to Gadkari but only cleared the air on the allegations in media over his companies.

Based on a report by Gurumurthy, the BJP had last week given a clean chit to Gadkari over allegations of financial misappropriation in his Purti Group.

"We are not concerned about a clean chit. Gadkari can't deny the fact that fake companies invested in Purti," Congress leader Digvijaya Singh told reporters.

After the BJP core group met Nov 6, reading from a statement signed by Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad had said: "Shri Gadkari has no direct or indirect interest in the 18 investment companies which have invested in the Purti Group."

"S. Gurumurthy, a chartered accountant and financial analyst, who has examined these documents and facts made a presentation to the party leaders. The meeting accepted the presentation of Shri Gurumurthy that there was no legal or moral wrong doing by Shri Nitin Gadkari," he said.

Gurumurthy is considered close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Gadkari has enjoyed the backing of the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP.

On Monday, the divisions in the BJP camp came to the fore after RSS ideologue M.G. Vaidya said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was behind Gadkari's troubles.

Both the RSS and the BJP had swiftly denied the link.

Earlier, while party MP Ram Jethmalani had targeted Gadkari over the allegations, his son Mahesh Jethmalani had quit the party's national executive over the issue