Jayanthi Natarajan cosying up to BJP, PM Modi to take call: Sources

The sources said Natarajan had met BJP chief Amit Shah and a few other senior leaders in December last. Natarajan, at her press conference in Chennai on Friday, denied any such meeting.

The sources said a minister from Bihar had been in touch with her regarding her joining the BJP.

During his election campaign, Natarajan was the only minister whose name Modi had mentioned in his speech referring to corruption in the UPA government. “A former minister from Tamil Nadu delayed key development projects. ‘Jayanthi tax’ stalled growth and youth lost jobs,” Modi had said at a rally in April 2014.

Countering Natarajan’s outbursts against the party leadership, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said she was “acting at the behest of her new political masters who may have got evidence against her”.

Natarajan’s former colleague Krishna Tirath joined the BJP earlier this month and is contesting Delhi election on a BJP ticket.

Natarajan, who had earlier been accused of delaying environment clearance for big ticket projects during the UPA regime, has alleged that she was following the directions on green nod to project and said she was “vilified, humiliated and sidelined by central leadership” without giving her a chance to explain. She had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in November 2014 charging a section of the party of “defaming” her.

Her revelation that she was personally reluctant, but was forced by the party to attack Narendra Modi on snooping controversy in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections has fuelled speculation that she was playing her cards for getting close to the BJP.

Hours after Natarajan’s press meet, senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Congress-led UPA was “practitioner of crony capitalism” and of a “sadistic economy” which was vindictive in nature, wanting to teach some people a lesson while wanting to favour some others.

Jaitley said her letter has “conclusively established” that it was not the statutory consideration that weighed in the UPA regime. “But what weighed with them was the whims of political leaders of the party as to who is to be granted environmental permission and who is not to be granted an environmental permission.”

According to BJP sources, a section of the BJP leaders was aware of Natarajan’s letter to Sonia. However, they said the party was unlikely to take her into the fold because some of the decisions she had taken during her term as the environment minister may be examined by the CBI. They also admitted that the timing of the leakage of letter has done “good” to the BJP as it has “shifted the focus from negative reports ahead of the Delhi election”.

In his statement to the media, Jaitley said, “I hope the Environment Ministry now will go into each of these permissions which were granted and not granted and make sure that these are expeditiously dealt with only as per law and no other consideration.”