Madhya Pradesh state Congress unit chief Jitu Patwari on Wednesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of electoral impropriety. He claimed that the party had broken the backbone of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Interacting with the media at the Indira Bhawan headquarters of the state party unit, Patwari claimed that a close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra BJP Secretary, (Vinod) Tawde, was caught by the public distributing cash for votes.Patwari claimed that Tawde had distributed Rs 15 crore before the arrival of the police in neighbouring Maharashtra.
He blamed the BJP for undermining autonomous institutions. He said that in the last 10 years, more than 600 elected representatives, MPs and MLAs, had been bought and switched parties, violating democratic norms.Patwari further said that in ancient times, slaves were sold, and in the current age, cows, buffaloes, and oxen are sold.
Modi, he claimed, had made elected representatives available for sale.Modi had spoken about digital currency, but the sheer volume of cash being distributed exposed the face of this government. The people of the country and the states are watching how the government is being unmasked, he charged.Speaking ahead of the counting of votes in Vijaypur, Patwari said the backbone of the Election Commission had been broken, with the Collector and SP openly violating electoral rules.
"Tawde’s act of distributing notes in Maharashtra was done on Modi’s instructions. The BJP has misused money in every state, and it is clear that democracy, the Constitution, and media impartiality are under threat. The Congress strongly condemns Tawde’s actions, supported by Modi," said Patwari.Patwari also criticised Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Agriculture Minister and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, for failing to fulfil his promise to double farmers' incomes.
"Shivraj had claimed that farmers were his 'gods', but a farmer from Guna, in a viral video, revealed how he, being a small and poor farmer, had not received a single grain of fertiliser from the government," alleged the MPCC chief.He said that on Sunday morning, a farmer from Guna’s Jhangar village, Bhagwat Kirar, distressed by the fertiliser shortage, posted a video on social media. Sadly, he passed away the very next night, and his body was hastily cremated without a post-mortem.Patwari also mentioned the case of a 72-year-old farmer, Babulal Jat, who committed suicide in Dagawanima village in Harda five days ago due to a dispute over land.In Gwalior, two farmers have sought permission for 'euthanasia' due to land disputes with local goons.
