Amid Lalit Modi Controversy, Nitin Gadkari Calls On Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje

New Delhi:  Union minister Nitin Gadkari met with Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Monday. He is the first senior BJP leader to meet Ms Raje since the revelation last week that she had agreed to be secret witness to corruption-tainted IPL former boss Lalit Modi’s immigration application.

Mr Gadkari is in Jaipur to inaugurate a national highway project.

On Sunday, Ms Raje made her first public appearance since the scandal exploded.

The BJP has been seen to distance itself since Lalit Modi’s team released documents showing that she had agreed to secretly support his immigration application to the UK.

Ms Raje is also facing questions over business deals between her son Dushyant Singh and Lalit Modi.

The Chief Minister would have come face to face with BJP chief Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh at an event in Punjab on Friday but she cancelled it at the last minute, saying she had a backache.

Ms Raje had called Amit Shah just after the damning documents emerged, but sources indicated that the party was not entirely convinced by her explanation that she shared close family ties with the former IPL boss but there is no wrongdoing on her part.

Amid calls for Ms Raje’s resignation, BJP leaders in Rajasthan have rallied behind her.