Jayanthi Natarajan quit the Congress today. (Agence France-Presse)
Jayanthi Natarajan, the former Union minister who quit the Congress today, reportedly met with BJP president Amit Shah recently during the Winter Session of Parliament, according to sources.
Ms Natarajan has said "an atmosphere of lies and suffocation" has taken over the party of which she was a member for over 30 years. She publicly today slammed Rahul Gandhi, No 2 in the Congress, for providing "specific inputs" on mega-projects who were declined clearances by her as Environment Minister. Mr Gandhi, she said, later seemed to blame her for stalling progress and development; she also alleged that his associates planted stories in the media to counter the party line that when she was asked to resign as minister in December 2013, it was because she was assigned to help the party prepare for the national election.
The BJP's top leaders, sources said, are not keen to consider inducting Ms Natarajan, in part because of reports that some of her decisions as Environment Minister could be examined by the country's premier investigating agency, the CBI.
Just weeks ago, Krishna Tirath, who was also a Union minister in the Congress-led government, switched sides to the BJP.
Ms Natarajan stressed in a press conference today that the Congress over-ruled her objections to attacking Narendra Modi, then the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate, over the controversy known as Snoop-gate.
Ms Natarajan said she made it clear that she was reluctant to bring up matters that were personal. The Congress had alleged that as Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Modi, through his then Home Minister Amit Shah, had ordered the illegal surveillance of a young woman architect during her visits to Gujarat. The accusations were made on the basis of reports by two investigative news websites. The woman's father later said he had sought Mr Modi's assistance in ensuring the safety of his daughter.