Welcoming CM Harish Rawat having agreed to participate in public interaction programme over the sting CD which purportedly showed him as trying to buy back the dissident MlAs by flaunting lucrative offer, the State BJP chief and the leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt said on Saturday that it is time for the CM to fix the date.
“We are welcoming the CM’s gesture. I would love to participate in the same too to counter the CM point by point, bringing to the people what happened during the present CM’s scam-tainted tenure ,” he said. Notably, the CBI has been probing the case with the CM being summoned to Delhi twice.
However, in the same breath, Bhatt said that by calling such public interaction programmes in his official residence, Rawat is seeking to dilute things. “I am throwing him the gauntlet to arrange such meetings in the open forums so that anybody can participate or question to the CM directly. I hope he would accept the challenge and act accordingly. We have no objection if it is a news channel. He should fix the date and the venue of the debate that would be convenient for all ,” Bhatt said.
“Those who are still left in illusion that the CM would pull out development from his hat would get disillusioned once they witness or participate in the debate. The most disturbing fact is that the CM who had plotted the whole thing regarding the CD is now being seen as projecting himself as helpless victim of an intrigue. Such kind of logic would not cut ice with the people,” the BJP leader said. He said his party would love to participate in open debates on all the four sting operations, including the one where the CM’s secretary was purportedly seen negotiating a deal with the liquor baron on behalf of the CM.
“We must remember what CM said while trying to cut a deal with the dissident MlAs through a middleman when his government plunged in a crisis after nine Congress MlAs turned rebels. It is preposterous for a CM to say that he would have his eyes closed if the dissidents after being made ministers go on siphoning off funds,” Bhatt said.
Citing another CD, Bhatt said that an MlA had said conversationally about the huge amount of money that the CM had given to the MlAs to ensure that they voted for the Harish Rawat Government during the crucial vote of confidence. The MlA also revealed how the MlAs were getting regular monetary benefit from the State Government, he said.
Bhatt mentioned another sting CD where a senior UPCl officer was caught on camera, negotiating a deal with an electrical equipment manufacturing company. “Besides, we would raise the issue of the mining mafias ruing the roost with the CM’s connivance,” he added.
Bhatt ripped into the state government, saying that they could hardly have cared less for the rain-ravaged people of the state. “The CM and others are engaged in wriggling out of their intra-party disaster. They seem to have little time to heed to the helpless victims of the nature’s fury who have been screaming for help being reduced to destitution. The Government is now placing before the Centre fictitious figures to play down the dimension of the disaster for petty political motives,” he said.