UK government’s decision to order liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s extradition has been seen as a major victory for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government that has been battling the perception of being soft on big loan defaulters. Flight of several big loan defaulters like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi from the country during its tenure has tarnished the image of Modi government who came to power in the name of fighting corruption at high places.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley immediately used the development to target the opposition, claiming victory for the government’s tough stand against fugitive businessmen while targeting the opposition for rallying around Saradha chit-fund scam accused.

UK government’s decision to extradite the fugitive businessman to India comes a day after a bitter political fight breaking out in the country between the BJP led Union government and Mamata Banerjee led TMC government in West Bengal over the CBI action against Kolkata police commissioner Rajiv Kumar. The CBI’s attempt to question the Kolkata city police chief at his official residence on Sunday evening in connection with Saradha chit fund scam led to a confrontation situation between the two agencies as Kolkata police briefly detained some officers of the CBI team.

Vijay Mallya’s extradition order provided an easy opportunity to the NDA government to take moral high ground. Arun Jaitley, former finance minister and leader of the Rajya Sabha claimed victory for the efforts made by the NDA government. It’s important for Jaitley as Mallya had publicly claimed of meeting him in Parliament and making an offer for settling the outstanding loans before leaving the country when Jaitley was in-charge of finance ministry. Jaitley had to clarify that he never gave an appointment to Vijay Mallya after BJP government came to power in Delhi in 2014.

“Modi Government clears one more step to get Mallya extradited while Opposition rallies around the Saradha Scamsters,” no later than the news of UK government’s extradition order became public, Jaitely tweeted from New York where he is undergoing a medical check up.

The NDA government is trying to bring back high profile fugitive businessmen like Vijay Mallya to the country ahead of crucial Lok Sabha elections to stay one step ahead of the opposition in this perception battle as a combative Congress will try to corner the government over the corruption issue during the elections.  Opposition parties have constantly accused the government of being soft on big loan defaulters that resulted in their escape from the country when the scams became public.

Several high profile defaulters, including Vijay Mallya, promoter of now defunct Kingfisher Airlines and Nirav Modi and Mehuj Choksi, promoters of Gitanjali Gems, have escaped the country after Modi government came to power in Delhi in May 2014.

Vijay Mallya is wanted in India in connection with loan defaults of over Rs 9,000 crore borrowed from several banks including State Bank of India and IDBI and also of money laundering. And Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi are wanted in India for fraud and loan defaults amounting to over Rs 11,400 crore raised from another major public sector bank – Punjab National Bank.