BJP, Congress step up exchanges over fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya

The two parties have indulged in a war of words, and thrown allegations at each other ever since Mallya 's claim on Wednesday that he had met Jaitley before leaving for the UK

A day after demanding Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s resignation for his meeting with fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that Mallya couldn’t have left the country without Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approval.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) responded by pointing at the supposed “close relations” between the businessman and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, and how the Manmohan Singh government “had forced banks” to give him a bailout package.

The BJP’s national media chief, Anil Baluni, said there was evidence of Mallya having sent e-mails between 2010 and 2013 to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as a