AICC general secretary incharge of east UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s move to go for alliances with smaller parties like Mahan Dal and Jan Adhikar Party has not gone down well with party workers as the Congress scion faced protests soon after the declaration of tie-ups with these outfits.
Not just protest, the party leaders also forced the AICC general secretary in charge of east UP to make a secret probe into charges of money exchanging hands in ticket allotments or even striking of alliance with smaller outfits, particularly with Babu Singh Kushwaha’s Jan Adhikar Party.
Kushwaha has spent several years in jail after the Congress exposed his role in the multi-crore rupees scam in National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) projects in UP.
Interestingly, a letter and an audio tape of a call on social media also embarrassed the grand old party. The letter showed that Jan Adhikar Party had declared names of five candidates on March 16, a day before it cemented alliance with the Congress. A day after the alliance, on Monday, Kushwaha’s party declared four candidates.
A Congress leader said that Kushwaha had already reached a secret pact with a senior Congress leader hence he was confident of the tie-up and went on to release the list of five candidates a day ahead of the alliance was stitched with Congress.
“It is now for Priyanka to probe as to how a pact was made with Kushwaha without her knowledge and whether she knew about Kushwaha’s tainted past,” the Congress leader said.
Sources said that in another embarrassment for Congress, an audio tape went viral on social media in which Mahan Dal chief Keshav Dev Maurya, while speaking to another leader, claimed that he decided to end his pact with Congress to save himself from embarrassment of accepting money for stitching an alliance without taking any seat for the party.
“I was confident that the Congress will join the grand alliance and if I fought on their symbol and will become MP and will be able to run my party. I cannot give any clarification now that Congress has given seven seats to Jan Adhikar Party,” Maurya is heard saying.
“I have dispatched a letter to Congress informing them of ending the alliance and any association will be only possible if Congress gives five seats to Mahan Dal,” he is further heard saying to his party leader.
Sources claimed that a senior Congress leader also informed Priyanka how a sizeable amount was pocketed by another senior leader by ensuring a Lok Sabha ticket for a seat in east UP. The leader also provided some documents to buttress the charge.
Annoyed at the embarrassing development, Priyanka is said to have asked UP Congress chief Raj Babbar to look into the matter and report to her.
Meanwhile on Monday, Jan Adhikar Party announced four candidates, mostly close kin of party founder Babu Singh Kushwaha. The party said that Kushwaha, an accused on bail in the NRHM scam, would not contest the election.
The candidates are Kushwaha’s wife Shiv Kanya from Chandauli, his founder brother Shiv Sharan Singh from Jhansi and a kin Chandrashekhar Singh from Basti. The party also fielded Suraj Singh Shakya from Etah Lok Sabha seat.
Jan Adhikar Party candidates will contest on the party symbol of ‘bowl’ from five seats while from two seats — Ghazipur and Ballia — they will fight the election on Congress symbol.
Jan Adhikar Party general secretary IP Singh Kushwaha told the media in Lucknow on Monday that Babu Singh Kushwaha would campaign for Congress candidates and ruled out opposition within the Congress over the alliance.