Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday led a party delegation to president Pratibha Patil, demanding removal of Gujarat governor Kamla Beniwal in view of her alleged involvement in a massive land grab scam in Jaipur.

Citing the May 2, 2010 order of the Rajasthan cooperative registrar on some highly influential persons allegedly grabbing the government land worth Rs 1,000 crores through "fraudulent means" in the name of a cooperative society, the delegation submitted a memorandum saying: "Unfortunately, those named in the order include Gujarat governor Dr Kamla Beniwal."

Alleging that Beniwal had illegally become a member of the society's executive and indulged in malpractices, the memorandum said her continuation as governor had become untenable in the light of the serious strictures of the registrar and constitutional propriety demands that she relinquish the high office forthwith.

The delegation appealed to the president to withdraw her pleasure to Beniwal to hold the office and direct her to step down as the Gujarat governor "pending thorough investigations into the entire land grab scandal". It said an explanation may also be sought from the Rajasthan government why no action was taken against the society and its members.

The memorandum also annexed another order of May 2 this year rejecting a resolution passed by the Kisan Samuhik Krishi Sahakari Samiti. It says: "...the claim of doing 16 hours farm labour work (by the society members, including Dr Kamla Beniwal) for last 58 years is a blatant lie."

The delegation also told the president that the matter was raised in both the houses of Parliament this month and no satisfactory explanation has come from Beniwal as she was maintaining a studied silence while the Rajasthan government, too, was refusing to take any serious cognizance of scandal.

The delegation included BJP national secretary Dr Kirit Somaiya and Bhupendra Yadav, Rajasthan BJP president Arun Chaturvedi and party MPs Arjun Meghawal and Balbir Punj.