To prevent a whisper campaign around BJP leader and Union Minister Gopinath Munde’s death in an accident in Delhi last week, the Government is likely to order a CBI inquiry.

On Tuesday morning Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Maharashtra BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis met Home Minister Rajnath Singh to press for a CBI probe into Munde’s death. “The Home Minister responded favourably to our request,” said Fadnavis.

Although Gadkari did not comment on whether the Home Minister had agreed to a probe, Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly Eknath Khadse too issued a statement asserting that he has been “assured” of a detailed CBI investigation.

“This morning, Rajnath Singh telephoned me and discussed last week’s accident which claimed Munde's life and said CBI would conduct a probe into it. The Union Minister told me that official orders in this connection would be issued in three to four days,” Khadse said. Sixty-four-year-old Munde, who was sworn in Union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister, died in a road accident in central Delhi last week.

His supporters have raised doubts about why no security personnel accompanied him when he left for the airport to go to Maharashtra and how he died in a minor accident and whether it was the result of a sabotage.

The BJP is worried that these doubts may acquire a political momentum as elections are soon to be held in Maharashtra.

So, Munde’s daughter and MLA Pankaja Munde Palve supplemented the party’s efforts to squash these rumours by urging her father’s supporters “not to fall prey to those trying to make political capital out of the tragedy”.

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