Rajasthan minister rules out CM Vasundhara Raje's resignation

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Health Minister Rajendra Rathore today rejected demands for the resignation of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on the issue of Lalitgate saying the entire national BJP and the Centre were with her.

"The entire BJP be it at the Centre or the state are with her. She has been leading us and will continue to do so. The entire legislature party is standing strongly with her. Our leadership is standing by her.

"The question of her resignation does not arise. There is no no need to give a resignation" state Health Minister Rajendra Rathore told a press conference.

However, he refused to go into the allegations against the chief minister in the wake of her purported "secret" backing for Lalit Modi's immigration plea in London saying "whatever she had to say and whatever information she had she had already said in a brief statement (on Tuesday)".

"When she has said 'what is the document you are talking about', that ends the matter," he said when asked about her witness statement to a London court in favour of the tainted former IPL boss and his investment in a company owned by her son Dushyant Singh, MP.

Dismissing the entire controversy surrounding Raje as a "small" issue, he said if an explanation has to be given on such things, then one's entire life will be spent doing that.

The minister's defence of Raje comes even as the party high command is said to have gagged its spokespersons from commenting on Raje.

Asked about Congress' demand that Raje should accept moral responsibility and resign, Rathore said that on similar occasions during the Congress regime if that party had taken such a stand, its government should have resigned many times every month and every year.

"There were many bigger episodes (during the Congress rule). This (Lalitgate) is no issue. There is no such thing in it," he said.

When reporters persisted with their question on the controversies, the minister said at the appropriate time all questions will be answered. "There is nothing secret about it," he said.