Raje did nothing wrong legally or ethically: Nitin Gadkari

Coming out strongly in defence of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over her alleged links with former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stands with her.

Following a meeting with Raje in Jaipur on Monday, the former BJP president said that the Rajasthan leader had done nothing wrong morally, legally and ethically.

The Union Minister further clarified that Raje's son Dushyant's deal with Lalit Modi's company was purely a commercial one. Notably, the same was asserted by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday.

The meeting assumed significance as it was the first meeting of the Rajasthan leader with a senior party leader since the controversy broke out. She had earlier cancelled a trip to Punjab where she was slated to meet BJP president Amit Shah and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

After days of silence over the controversy around Raje's alleged ties with the former IPL chief, the BJP central leadership last week came out in her defence, saying the party as well as the Rajasthan CM had clarified their stand on the issue.

Addressing a press conference in the national capital, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi had claimed that the authenticity of documents produced against the Rajasthan leader was not verified, adding that there was "no corruption and no impropriety" on her part.

Ruling out the demand of the Congress party for her resignation, Trivedi said that the demand of the opposition party was "baseless" and without any "substantive documents".