 "Money seized during I-T raids in Karnataka was to be used in polls: BJP")
Madhya Pradesh BJP chief V D Sharma on Saturday claimed that the Rs 42 crore recovered by the I-T department during raids on contractors in Karnataka on Friday was meant for next month's polls in five states as he sought to link the seizure with the Congress.
Assembly elections will be held in MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Mizoram between November 7 and 30, and the counting of votes will be on December 3.
This money was found on the premises of contractor Ambikapathy, who on behalf of the Congress, had falsely charged the then BJP government in Karnataka as a 40 per cent commission government, Sharma said while addressing a press conference here.
Despite being voted to power in the southern state, Sharma alleged, the Congress could not prove the allegation of 40 per cent commission government.
The Income Tax (I-T) Department recovered more than Rs 42 crore in cash, stashed in a residential premise in Bengaluru, on Friday as part of its tax evasion searches against some Karnataka-based contractors and people linked to them.
This now proves who takes a commission and is involved in corruption... The commission money of Congress is recovered from the same person, said Sharma, whose party now governs MP.
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If the Congress is elected to power in any state, it becomes the centre of corruption at the behest of one family, he said, accusing the erstwhile Kamal Nath government in MP, which lasted for about 15 months after the 2018 state polls, of indulging in corruption.
After winning 114 seats in the 230-member House in MP last time, the Congress had formed a coalition government under Nath. But it collapsed in March 2020 when a section of Congress MLAs loyal to now-Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia joined the BJP.
It is said that this money (seized in Karnataka) was to be used for elections in five states. Ambikapathy enjoys the blessings of senior Congress leaders, he said.
Asked about the BJP leader's claims, MP Congress media department chairman K K Mishra said, Thanks to VD Sharma who didn't link the Congress with the consignment of drugs worth over Rs 20,000 crore found at Adani's Mundra Port in BJP-ruled Gujarat. Going by his logic, the money and note-counting machines recovered from corrupt persons in MP belong to the BJP.
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