Mumbai, Dec. 28: The BJP brass today tried desperately to rally around disgraced colleague Sanjay Joshi as allegations of “foul play” against senior and erstwhile leaders dominated the silver jubilee celebrations.

Party general secretary Pramod Mahajan and former president M. Venkaiah Naidu said Joshi was a “victim” of a smear campaign. “He is innocent,” Mahajan said. “But like Sita, he has to go through the agnipariksha prescribed by Sangh traditions.”

Joshi sneaked into Nagpur late on Tuesday and quietly left for Bhopal this morning from his brother’s residence. He ducked waiting reporters at the airport, leaving through the departure gate instead of the one for arrivals.

Mahajan said it was unlikely the scandal would lead to Joshi’s retirement from politics. “He has resigned but I do not think this is his permanent sanyas from active politics.”

Naidu said investigations would establish the veracity of the CD, on which Joshi is purportedly shown having sex with a woman. “Sanjaybhai is a victim of a malicious campaign to malign the party,” he said.

Although the “Bhopal link” in the scandal has pointed a finger at expelled leader Uma Bharti, stories of Joshi’s old enmity with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi are also being recycled.

But party insiders discounted the Modi angle. “Why would Modi bother with an inconspicuous pracharak like Joshi whose only idea of fun, besides what he did in the infamous CD, is to go on interminable train journeys to the most wretched, rural places in India?” an insider asked.

Although Joshi does not inspire strong feelings either against or for him, those who get along reasonably well with him are Mahajan and Arun Jaitley. Outgoing BJP chief L.K. Advani is reportedly “disdainful” of his suspect political acumen.