Amid the ongoing electioneering for the Maharashtra Assembly polls, a massive controversy broke out on Friday over NCP (AP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal’s claim in a just-published book that he switched over from the Opposition to the BJP-led MahaYuti because of his possible prosecution by the Enforcement Directorate ( ED) in an alleged money laundering case.
In his book ‘2024: The Election that Surprised India’, Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai has quoted Bhujbal, who is the State’s Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister, as saying that he left the Sharad Pawar camp and joined Rebel leader Ajit Pawar to become part of the BJP-led Maha Yuti (NDA) because of a fresh ED notice he had received.
In the book, Sardesai writes: “…Just a few days earlier, he had received yet another notice from the ED in an alleged money laundering case. The original case had been filed in 2016, and the matter had been dragging on ever since. Accused, along with his son and nephew, of irregularities in awarding contracts worth over Rs 100 crore to a Mumbai developer, Bhujbal had already spent two and a half years in jail before he was granted bail….”
Cashing in on the revelations made by Bhujbal in Rajdeep Sardesai’s book, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MCA) -- comprising Congress, Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) – slammed the ruling BJP for “misuse” of central investigation agencies - Income Tax, Central Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement Directorate for political reasons.
Speaking on the issue, the NCP (SP) working president and MP Supriya Sule said: “I have told this many times…I have said in the Parliament…the BJP is misusing ICE to target political opponents…IT, CBI and ED,” said Supriya Sule, the NCP (SP) Working President and Lok Sabha MP from Baramati.
Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member Sanjay RaUT said that BJP has misused central agencies and he himself had been a victim. “I did not bow down…I went to jail (and now I am on bail)…there are several others who feared the central agencies and switched over to the NDA camp,” he said.
NCP (SP) chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said: “It is appalling to see senior leaders openly confessing to joining the ruling party to evade investigation. Such admissions only reinforce the belief that the BJP operates as a 'washing machine' where corrupt leaders enter and emerge spotless. This culture undermines the spirit of democracy and threatens to weaken public trust in the country’s legal and judicial systems,” Tapse said.
