Public money funded dinner at 2013 BJP meet: AAP

Panaji: A private dinner for BJP leaders during a 2013 national executive meet here where Narendra Modi was anointed the party's face for the 2014 general elections was paid for by the state chequer, the AAP alleged on Wednesday, and sought a CAG probe into the affair.

A statement issued by the AAP, quoting details sought under the Right to Information (RTI) act, has questioned the use of public money to shell out the Rs.6.37 lakh spent on the dinner for the national executive members on the night of June 8 at a five-star hotel in Panaji.

"With the Vigilance Department under the control of the BJP-led government, it is necessary that the said expenses of the Goa government are also investigated by the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG), for a more thorough and fair probe," Aam Aadmi Party's Goa ad-hoc Secretary Valmiki Naik said.

It was at the crucial meet in Panaji in 2013 that decks within the party were cleared for Modi, then the Gujarat chief minister, to become the BJP's prime ministerial nominee, after he was formally appointed head of the party's 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign committee.

The AAP now says that the BJP's meet was the party's internal affair and was not a state event, which made the expenditure of public money questionable.

"The private party-related expense was foisted on the people of Goa, despite the fact that the state was already facing a financial crunch due to loss of mining revenue," Naik said in a statement.