The Babulal Marandi-led JVM is again in a quandary, and this time due to an insider. Senior party leader who holds position of a general secretary Sunil Sahu has come all gun blazing against principal general secretary and legislative body leader Pradeep Yadav for indulging in horse trading and also stopped just short of terming him a BJP man in the JVM camp.
Sahu, who is considered as one of the founding members of the JVM in 2006, has alleged that cross voting happened during the Rajya Sabha poll in 2016 was the handiwork of Pradeep Yadav and some of his close aides, the report already published by The Pioneer based on the JMM’s internal probe findings conducted after the backlash.
“Though I do not have visible evidences to prove that and no one can have in general but I have full conviction that it was Pradeep Yadav and another party MlA Prakash Ram who cross-voted during the election. He wanted to get money from the JMM into the party fund in return of the two votes and in the run up to the poll he had told me to raise the matter in a meeting with Babulal Marandi,” said Sahu.
He went on and added that when Marandi snubbed the idea terming it akin to horse trading, Yadav then tried to convince Bandhu Tirkey to approach the JMM leadership seeking money.
“Bandhu Tirkey also declined that. Pradeep Yadav then without informing anyone got appointed his yes man Santosh Kumar as a polling agent who turned a blind eye to their votes polled against the JMM candidate. If a CBI probe is ordered, everything would become clear,” said the disgruntled leader.
Going even further, Sunil Sahu charged Yadav with playing in the hands of the BJP. “When six of our MlAs crossed over to the BJP and matter was being heard in the Speaker Court, I was one of the eight witnesses to give testimony. I appeared in the court and gave evidence in the best possible manner. But I was not informed about the date when the cross examination was to be done. Pradeep Yadav even closed the case without my cross examination which could be a blow to the case. What does it indicateIJ” asked Sahu on Tuesday. He, at the same time, also blamed Marandi for turning a blind eye to the autocratic style of functioning of Pradeep that, Sahu alleged, has resulted into several disintegrations the party had to live with previously.
However, the party refutes his claims. “He is talking all rubbish. He does not have any concrete proof of what he has said. Yadav holds the party and is active like no one else. I think Sahu is jealous of him and he has become too ambitious. He should ponder that the party has taken him to a level from nowhere,” said JVM vice president Saba Ahmed.