A day after allegations against its MP Varun Gandhi, the BJP maintained a stoic silence on the issue. The party neither defended nor castigated him on Friday.
A BJP leader said a party general secretary had been asked to talk to Gandhi, after the Swaraj Abhiyan led by Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav accused him of leaking defence secrets to arms middleman Abhishek Verma after he was “honey-trapped”.
"He has issued a clarification. There is no need to offer further comments," BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
While the party appeared to be in a bind on dealing with the issue, sources said the it did not fear much political fallout of the allegations which went back over ten years. That party leaders have been asked to refrain from commenting was evident on Friday.
Amidst the silence on the party’s part, speculation was rife on Friday that the BJP leadership was planning to give a show cause notice to Gandhi.
His relations with the leadership seemed to have soured further after the poster campaign in Allahabad during a party conclave in June this year. Gandhi, was, as of now, left to defend himself against the allegations made by Swaraj Abhiyan.
"I am going to turn 37 now. I have never met him since I entered public life in 2004. The only reason why I even know of him is because his parents were members of Parliament and was a respected family. I knew them as many other leaders knew them," he had said.
While the party refrained from getting drawn into the debate, it's Allahabad MP Shyamcharan Gupta told a TV channel that the allegations were serious and should be probed.
