Nagpur: “I have done nothing wrong,” said mayor Nanda Jichkar who returned to the city from an official tour of the US in the early hours of Friday. At a press conference, she said that no rules were broken while introducing her son Priyash as a personal assistant (PA) for a conference held in San Francisco last week.Even though four city BJP MLAs and other party members had criticized the move, Jichkar found support from BJP MP Nitin Gadkari. Crying foul play, opposition parties and several activists had demanded the mayor’s resignation.After landing at 2.40am, Jichkar went to the residence of Sandip Joshi, the ruling party leader in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), around 9am. Later, the two went to the residence of BJP city president Sudhakar Kohle. Jichkar’s next halt was Gadkari’s Gokulpeth residence where she was accompanied by Joshi and former mayor Pravin Datke.Jichkar skipped an event organized by the civic body’s social welfare department at Suresh Bhat auditorium at 11.30am. However, at 3pm, she attended the party meeting organized in the wake of the general body meeting slated on Monday.After stating that she will issue a press release to clarify her stand, Jichkar went on to hold a press conference along with Joshi. “Gadkari and Kohle have stated that Jichkar has the full support of the party. Gadkari told us that since the tour was not funded by NMC, there is no controversy,” said Joshi.BJP sources told TOI that neither Joshi nor any other NMC office bearer was present when Jichkar met Gadkari. “It was a one-on-one meeting,” said sources.Claiming that she was unwell and not certain of participating in the San Francisco conference, Jichkar said, “I went for two reasons: One, the visa process was completed. And, second, the organizers Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) insisted that I come as I was to be inducted in the board on behalf of South Asia.”Jichkar added that coordinating private agency ICLEI and GCoM had said that she could bring along any person. “I told them my son will be accompanying me as a PA. However, the GCoM in its letter to US Embassy mentioned Priyash as my private secretary,” she said.On not taking along any NMC official or her private secretary who is an NMC staffer like she did on four earlier tours, Jichkar said, “I asked Ranjana Lade (deputy municipal commissioner), Chetna Tank (BJP corporator) and one more woman corporator to accompany me but all cited problems. Having my son around was helpful as he helped me in making presentations and speeches for panel discussions.”The mayor had intimated about her trip to the civic chief as per protocol but failed to mention that Priyash was accompanying her. To this, she had no explanation. Jichkar left the city on September 11. The event was between September 12 and 14.Jichkar also said there was no question of her resigning. She also displayed identity cards issued by GCoM which showed her as an NMC representative and Priyash as a member of a private cell phone company.Joshi also refuted rumours of BJP planning to end his tenure as well as that of Jichkar, deputy mayor Deepraj Pardikar and NIT trustee Bhushan Shingane. “I had conveyed to the party leaders that I want to quit the post as ruling party leader I after being appointed as MSSIDC chairman. However, I will continue to do whatever responsibility is given to me.”

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