As Spotlight Turns to Gadkari, Political Questions Loom

European Pressphoto AgencyBharatiya Janta Party president Nitin Gadkari at a press conference in New Delhi in this Oct. 18, 2010 file photo.

Nitin Gadkari, the president of India's main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is the latest to Indian politician to face allegations of corruption.

Purti Power and Sugar, which was once controlled by Mr. Gadkari, is accused of getting financing through a maze of shell companies and accepting a loan from a contractor that Mr. Gadkari favored while he was minister of public works in Maharashtra. India's corporate affairs ministry is investigating the allegations, an official said earlier this week.

The allegations, raised in investigations by The Times of India and the independent news channel NDTV, have raised political questions as well: Will Mr. Gadkari survive as president of the party? And if not, who would replace him?

An editorial in The Asian Age said, “With pressure mounting on the B.J.P. and its chief, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, after reports about dubious funding of his trust, talk has begun in the saffron party about who will succeed Mr. Gadkari in case he has to step down and is not allowed a second term as party president.” His successor, the paper speculates, could be a Delhi party leader, or a virtual unknown from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the right-wing Hindu group that supports the B.J.P.

Mr. Gadkari's party, so far, is sticking by him. “This is a politically motivated canard spread by Congress,” Prakash Javadekar, a B.J.P. spokesman, said in a telephone interview.

“Congress's reputation is down because of allegations on Robert Vadra,” he said, referring to the son-in-law of the Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, who has been accused of illegal land deals. “They want to damage B.J.P.,” Mr. Javadekar said.

A B.J.P. senior leader, L. K. Advani, said in a statement Wednesday, “This is more to neutralize the unprecedented charges against the ruling” alliance. He added: “But I am of the view that the B.J.P. should be different and should not claim immunity on either scale or nature of the allegations.”

Mr. Gadkari, who resigned from the board of directors of the sugar company 14 months ago, told NDTV in an interview that there is nothing wrong with getting investments from contractors. He also said he is open to any investigation by the government.

The Congress Party, not surprisingly, demanded a probe into the allegations. Digvijay Singh, the general secretary of the party, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, saying: “I would be very grateful if you can forward my letter to the ministry of corporate affairs for instituting an inquiry by Serious Fraud Investigation Office for which a prima facie case exists.”