Anshuman Mishra apologises to BJP leaders

New Delhi:  Anshuman Mishra, who had levelled certain allegations against BJP leaders after the party backed out of supporting him for Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand, today retracted his comments and apologised to the party leaders.

The NRI businessman apologised to L K Advani, M M Joshi, Nitin Gadkari, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Jaitley hours after Mr Jaitley served a legal notice on him.

In a statement, Mr Mishra offered "complete and unequivocal public retraction" of his comments made against leaders like Mr Joshi, Mr Sinha, Mr Jaitley and a few others.

He also offered his "sincerest apologies" to Mr Advani and Mr Gadkari.

Mr Mishra, who had filed his nomination papers for Rajya Sabha seat from Jharkhand with backing by a section of BJP before the party made a U-turn, said he accepted "the fact that he had no significant association/relationship with BJP."

Mr Sinha had raised a banner of revolt after he found that the party was supporting Mr Mishra, an outsider, for the seat instead of nominating someone from BJP.

He raised the issue with Mr Advani and subsequently, the BJP decided not to support Mr Mishra.

In the statement, Mr Mishra said he would not like to be associated with "negative emotions like - anger and bitterness" and it was "high time to move on and focus on positive things".

He said he does "not intend to waste any more of the nation's time on this issue" when there are "grave issues in front of Mother India - World Economy and its impact, Naxalism and corruption."

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Arun Jaitley sends defamation notice to Anshuman Mishra

New Delhi:  The tiff between NRI businessman Anshuman Mishra and senior BJP leaders is getting murkier. Party leader Arun Jaitley has now sent a defamation notice to Mr Mishra for making "baseless allegations."

Mr Mishra was initially supported by a section of the BJP as an independent nominee for Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand. But he had to withdraw at the last moment following a directive from the BJP central leadership to its MLAs not to vote for him.

Right after Mr Mishra's nomination for a seat in the Rajya Sabha, top leaders had revolted and blocked Mr Mishra's chances. From LK Advani to Sushma Swaraj, they all agreed that the entrepreneur's background and his status as an "outsider" in Jharkhand make him an unsuitable candidate.

However, after he dropped out of the race, the 37-year-old fired salvo at BJP leaders including Murli Manohar Joshi. He claimed that he had funded the senior politician's poll campaigns in 2004 and 2009 and that he facilitated a meeting between Mr Joshi and corporate leaders being probed in the 2G scam. Mr Mishra also said that he has been the BJP's fund-raiser for over a decade.

Yesterday, BJP President Nitin Gadkari hit out at the NRI business and termed his allegations "baseless." "Anshuman Mishra's motivated and selective tirade against some of the top BJP leaders is nothing but an expression of frustration over his failure to make it to the Raja Sabha with the support of BJP MLAs from Jharkhand," he said. He is believed to have initially backed Mr Mishra's nomination. (With Inputs from PTI)

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