Senior BJP leaders Nitin Gadkari and Vasundhara Raje in London in 2011
A series of A-listers from the BJP including then president Nitin Gadkari watched a test match at Lord's in London in July 2011. Party leader Vijay Jolly told NDTV today that the tickets for the match, which took place in July 21-15, were not arranged by controversial cricket tycoon Lalit Modi, wanted in India in a slew of corruption cases.
"Nitin Gadkari was party president (at the time), and we were all over the media. So the tickets were arranged as part of good will during the trip," said Mr Jolly to NDTV.
The opposition Congress has said that the BJP must explain who paid for the tickets, scaling up its attack on the BJP's exposed proximity to Mr Modi with two top leaders helping him out at a time when he avoided returning to India to face criminal investigations. "We never met Lalit Modi in London," Mr Jolly emphasized, refuting reports that the controversial entrepreneur hosted a dinner for the BJP delegates, who included Smriti Irani, who is now Education Minister.
Mr Jolly said that Vasundhara Raje, the Rajasthan Chief Minister, was part of the group meeting. It was about four weeks later that Ms Raje would sign a document backing Mr Modi's immigration appeal, demanding confidentiality from UK officials.
The statement was outed by Mr Modi in a recent interview. On June 16, Ms Raje said she was unaware of the document. The Congress released a copy of her signed statement last night, declaring that the PM is now obliged to remove her from office.
Last August, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj whose husband and daughter have served as Mr Modis's lawyers, intervened with UK officials to help the entrepreneur get urgent travel documents. She has defended her assistance, saying Mr Modi needed to accompany his wife to Portugal for medical treatment.