Nagpur:
Former BJP President Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that an influential political leader had approached him, seeking help in pulling down the central government. Mr Gadkari added that he had turned down the request.
Mr Gadkari, who made this statement while addressing a private function in his hometown Nagpur, did not name the leader or mention the party that the said leader belongs to. He did not even disclose when exactly the leader had approached him.
However, politicians in Maharashtra say Mr Gadkari's statement should be taken with a pinch of salt. Mr Gadkari has repeatedly said he intends to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Nagpur, which can be seen as an attempt for a comeback to the national stage after his unceremonious exit as the BJP President in January.
Mr Gadkari's last few months in office were overshadowed by charges of corruption. The scaling up of the tax investigation against the Purti Group, founded by him in 2000, ensured that he would not return to the party's top job.
In October last year, NDTV had revealed that a matrix of firms that invested in the Purti Group appeared to exist only on paper. Some shared addresses and directors. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs decided to investigate the firms. Money laundering and tax evasion are among the charges levelled at Purti and its investors.