Union Minister Nitin Gadkari met Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje
At a time when her links with controversial cricket boss Lalit Modi have lurched the government into controversy, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje met today with senior union minister Nitin Gadkari - and received some crucial support.
"The whole party is behind her," said Mr Gadkari, "she has done nothing illegal." His statement breaks with the BJP's somewhat muted defence of Mrs Raje so far.
Mrs Raje is known to have a good working relationship with Mr Gadkari, who has served in the past as the president of their party, the BJP. He also inhabits a strong rapport with the party's powerful ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS.
Mrs Raje, 62, faces twin sets of problematic allegations regarding her connections to Mr Modi, who left India for London in 2010 amid a burst of corruption cases linked to his tenure as the boss of the Indian Premier League or IPL. In an interview recently, Mr Modi disclosed that his appeal for immigration to UK officials was backed by a "secret" document from Mrs Raje, who insisted on her testimony being couched in legal confidentiality. The Chief Minister has said she is not aware of the document Mr Modi cited.
At the same time, it has emerged that Mrs Raje's son, 41-year-old MP Dushyant Singh, was the beneficiary of what appears to be a sweetheart deal from Mr Modi. The cricket honcho paid Rs 96,000 for shares in a company owned by Mr Singh, who, in his income tax returns, claims the value of the shares to be just Rs 10 each. The BJP has said that Mr Singh paid the due taxes on the transaction, but the deal is reportedly being investigated for foreign exchange and other violations.
The BJP has been trying to etch a careful strategy for its handling of Mrs Raje, who has huge influence and popularity among the party's workers in her home state, as evidenced by her victory in the 2013 state election.