Gadkari must step down as BJP president: Jethmalani

After openly pitching for Narendra Modi as BJP’s PM candidate, maverick lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Tuesday dropped another bomb by demanding the resignation of BJP president Nitin Gadkari over a slew of allegations against him.

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: After openly pitching for Narendra Modi as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, maverick lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Tuesday dropped another bomb by demanding the resignation of BJP president Nitin Gadkari over a slew of allegations against him. Jethmalani said that in view of the fresh allegations against Gadkari in the Maharashtra land scam he should not seek a second term as the party president and make way for someone who inspires greater confidence. Speaking to a news channel, he said, “He (Gadkari) should not aspire for a second term because it weakens the party. We are fighting against corruption; we have to have a man of absolute impeccable integrity.” “In the interest of the party and in his own interest, he should get out of this fray now and make way for someone who inspires greater confidence,” he told CNN-IBN. Last week, Jethmalani had stirred the hornet’s nest by writing a letter to Nitin Gadkari in which he said the party must declare its prime ministerial candidate to help convince the voters in its pre-2014 election campaign. "I do not think that the choice is difficult... I would want Narendra Modi whose integrity and administrative ability are not in doubt," Jethamalani, a Rajya Sabha member, said in his two-page letter. On the assessment that Gadkari was also in the race for prime ministership, Jethmalani said, "I personally think that I will prefer Modi."