BJP state leaders to meet over graft charge on partyman

Kerala BJP leaders would meet here tomorrow amid corruption allegations against a party functionary over the issue of grant of MCI clearance to a private medical college.

Though the meeting was originally scheduled to hold discussions on follow up actions to be taken after the visit of BJP national president Amit Shah last month, the recent graft charge is going to dominate the tomorrow's meet, party sources said.

The party leadership is also embarrassed over the leak of the internal commission report on the graft charge and the meet is likely to discuss and fix responsibility for the leakage, they said.
 

Meanwhile, the CPI-M hit out at the BJP and demanded a comprehensive and impartial probe into the alleged corruption involving its functionary.

"What has come out is only the tip of the iceberg and the saffron party has become a party of corrupt," CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters here today.

Stating that it was not an internal matter of the BJP, he alleged that the party's central leaders were also involved in it.

Balakrishnan also alleged that the BJP had accepted money from 70 private medical colleges across the country for getting the MCI clearance.

Attacking the saffron party, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala sought a probe into "all dealings of state BJP leaders" after the NDA assumed power at the Centre.

The state vigilance had ordered a probe into the corruption allegations yesterday.

The BJP state unit had come under a cloud after an internal party report purportedly said a party functionary had allegedly taken a bribe of Rs 5.60 crore to facilitate the approval from the Medical Council of India (MCI) for the college in Varkala near here.

R S Vinod, convenor of the party's co-operative cell in the state, was expelled from the primary membership, hours after the contents of the report, reportedly submitted to state party chief last month, surfaced in a section of media.

According to an official in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), a probe into the corruption allegation has been ordered by the state vigilance director.