Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have avoided meeting both candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, in the upcoming election to the American presidency during his recent visit to the United States, but the U.S. election, due in less than a month, has created a controversy within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
On Wednesday, the BJP’s foreign affairs cell in-charge, Vijay Chauthaiwale, took to social media platform X to state that an online event being organised by Delhi BJP leader Vijay Jolly and hosting Shalabh Kumar, chairperson of the Republican Hindu Coalition USA, had nothing to do with the party, and that the BJP was not supporting or opposing any candidate in the fray.
“It has been brought to my notice that Shri @VijayJollyBJP, self proclaimed ‘senior BJP leader’ is organising online meeting supporting one of the two main presidential candidates of the US elections. BJP has nothing to do with this event. BJP is very clear that U.S. elections is an internal matter of the U.S. and BJP is not supporting or opposing any candidate in that country,” Mr. Chauthaiwale posted.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Jolly, a former BJP MLA from Delhi, said that he was organising the event under the aegis of the Delhi Study Circle, which was a bipartisan forum. “Thus, it has nothing to do with the BJP or any party in the U.S.,” he said.
He took umbrage at the use of the phrase “self proclaimed senior BJP leader” by Mr. Chauthaiwale, stating that he had been with the party since its inception in Mumbai in 1980, and that “no one should have the audacity” to question his party credentials.
“Moreover, Mr. Shalabh Kumar has been known to the BJP for long time and was instrumental in arranging a visit of four Republican Congressmen to meet then Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Narendra Modi-ji, back when he (Mr. Modi) was persona non grata in the U.S. These Republican Congressmen had also extended an invitation to Modi-ji, despite the attitude taken by the U.S. State Department at that time,” Mr. Jolly said.
This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here.
