Ahmedabad:
Setting aside speculations whether the Gujarat BJP wanted him to campaign for the next month's crucial assembly polls, BJP president Nitin Gadkari arrives in the state today to address few election rallies.
According to the party, Mr Gadkari will address two rallies in the diamond city of Surat which goes to polls in the first phase on December 13. Mr Gadkari will hold rallies in Libayat and Udhna constituencies of Surat which have a sizeable Marathi population.
Mr Gadkari has been facing allegations of corruption exposed by NDTV earlier and had split the party down the middle over his continuation as BJP president. He has survived so far thanks to the conditional support of the BJP's ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, which had chosen him to be president in the first place. RSS ideologue and chartered accountant S Gurumurthy had also given Mr Gadkari a clean chit, having gone through the balance sheets and accounts of the latter's Purti Group, which is at the centre of the corruption allegations.
A political storm had been raised after RSS ideologue M G Vaidya had alleged that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi could have been behind the anti-Gadkari campaign. Mr Vaidya wrote in a blog that Mr Modi hopes to be named the BJP's prime ministerial candidate and is worried that Mr Gadkari may stifle that likelihood. The BJP had, however, outrightly rejected the reports.
There were speculations that given allegations against Mr Gadkari the Gujarat BJP did not want him to campaign but these rallies will put those speculations to rest.
The two-phase Gujarat elections will be held on December 13 and 17. The counting of votes will take place on December 20.