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Lalit Modi row: Vasundhara Raje cancels Punjab trip

by IBNS 19 Jun 2015, 10:50 am

New Delhi, June 19 (IBNS): Amid reports that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is distancing itself from backing Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raj on the issue of former IPL chief Lalit Modi till she comes clean on it, reports said Raje has cancelled a trip to Punjab to share a public platform with BJP president Amit Shah and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday.

Reports quoting sources said Raje apparently cancelled the trip owing to her indisposition. 

She was scheduled to visit Punjab to join the celebrations of 350 years of Sikh shrine Anandpur Sahib. She would have shared the public platform with Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at the event.

Being cornered by the Oppositions over the Lalit Modi visa row, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is backing its External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and said she has done nothing wrong by helping the former Indian Premier League commissioner procure travel documents.

However, reports said that Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who is also facing resignation over her ties with Lalit Modi, is not receiving similar support.

Speaking to NDTV, BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra said there was "no gag order" but Raje needed to clarify. "Obviously, she knows how to handle these things. So let her clarify. Once we have the facts, we will speak on it," Mitra said.

Reports said BJP chief Amit Shah has asked Raje to not speak to reporters over the issue.

At the centre of a raging controversy involving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bigwigs who reportedly helped him travel in Europe, Lalit Modi had earlier said he was taken to task by the former UPA government for no reason though even some ministers of that government had helped him, a claim that was denied by the leaders he named.

Besides External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister  Vasundhara Raje had helped former the Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner's  application for immigration to the UK in 2011 too, said reports. 

"Raje and Sushma supported me when my wife was sick," Lalit Modi told a news channel.  "My wife was being taken to Portugal by whom? By Mrs Vasundhara Raje. Nobody knows that, I am putting that on record now,"  Modi had said, adding that she accompanied his wife Minal in 2012 and 2013.

On Sushma Swaraj, he had said, "It was a family, a legal whatever you may call it. We were very close. But the point is not that...I am very close to a lot of politicians, not only Mrs Swaraj."

He had said he also got the assistance of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel and Congress leader Rajiv Shukla.