December 14, 2024 20:48 (IST)
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No ambition to become BJP prez again: Gadkari
New Delhi, May 13 (IBNS): Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitin Gadkari has refuted reports that he is eyeing the post of BJP president.
"I have been the BJP president for three years. I have no ambition to become the BJP president again," Gadkari told CNN-IBN channel.
"(Narendra) Modi will decide what kind of role he will have for leaders. Party president Rajnath Singh will also decide," he said.
Earlier in the day, Gadkari met party patriarch LK Advani after a Right to Information Act (RTI) application revealed that there is no Income Tax probe pending against him.
Media reports speculated that Gadkari is attempting to return to the BJP president's post once again.
However, BJP's ideological patron Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has reportedly made it clear that Rajnath Singh will continue with the top post for now.
In January 2013, Gadkari was questioned by Income Tax (I-T) Department officials over the alleged dubious investments in the Purti group of companies.
On Jan 31, 2013, the leader of the right-wing Hindu nationalist party was quizzed for over four hours by Geetha Ravichandran, Director of I-T (Investigations) at the I-T office in central Nagpur's Sadar area, media reports said.
Gadkari had earlier submitted a 25-page document in reply to questions by the I-T department regarding his personal transactions and investments related to the Purti group of companies and others.
Earlier income tax officials visited eight locations in Mumbai linked to 24 different firms that invested in or did business with the Purti Group.
The BJP leader who denied any wrongdoing had appeared to warn I-T officials saying that they will have no one to protect them once his party comes to power.
He said the officials should realise that Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi and Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram will not protect them.
Gadkari on Jan 22, 2013 had resigned from the post of BJP president amid increasing grumblings against his second term.
Subject of an anti-graft investigation that has buoyed back into national headlines, Gadkari said that he was stepping aside since there was no consensus on his name for the top post.
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