Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh on Wednesday asserted that all reports about him and his family seeking political favours were baseless and said he would quit politics if any allegations of wrongdoing against him or his family members are proven.
“I will quit politics if there is an iota of proof against me or my family members’ integrity,” Rajnath said.
Rajnath’s clarification came in view of reports that the senior BJP leader is upset with some of his colleagues, who were allegedly spreading malicious stories about his son Pankaj Singh.
“For the last fifteen to twenty days, there have been a lot of baseless rumours circulating. I thought I should not bother with it because rumours have no basis and they will die soon, but I have seen that the rumours are just growing. I have spoken to the Prime Minister and BJP president Amit Shah on the issue, who have expressed shock and expressed incredulity at my predicamen,” Rajnath said.
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It came to fore that Singh is quite miffed with reports doing the rounds that Prime Minister Narendra Modi denied his son an election ticket from Noida for the Uttar Pradesh bypolls scheduled for September 13 due to unsavoury political conduct.
According to media reports, the prime minister scolded Rajnath’s son for taking bribes for police posting and warned him to mend his ways.
The former BJP president also categorically rejected the reports that he had met Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) leadership on the issue.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister’s Office rubbished reports about alleged misconduct of the Home Minister’s son. The PMO’s statement said: “The reports are plain lies, motivated and constitute a malicious attempt at character assassination and tarnishing the image of the Government.”
The PMO expressed its statement on social networking website twitter. Here’s what it tweeted:
The reports are plain lies, motivated & constitute a malicious attempt at character assassination and tarnishing the image of the Government
Those indulging in such rumour-mongering are damaging the interest of the nation. These reports are strongly denied: PMO statement
Recently, the power corridors in the national capital have been rife with reports that the whole episode is nothing, but a fallout of ongoing power struggle between some senior top BJP leaders.
While BJP has fielded 62-year-old Vimla Batham from Noida, the Congress and Samajwadi Party have fielded Rajendra Awana and Kajal Sharma respectively. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) hasn’t put forward any candidate for 11 Assembly and one Lok Sabha seat in UP.
