Amidst the bribery row sparked by the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha- Prajatantric (JVM- P) president Babulal Marandi who alleged that six of his party’s MlAs were bribed hugely into switching sides in 2014, the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, who was in-charge of Jharkhand BJP at the time, has brushed aside the charge. Responding to a question at the State secretariat on Saturday, CM said that Babulal Marandi, being known as a gentleman, should not have raked up the issue after such a long space of time. In a lighter vein, he added that had such a huge deal been struck as alleged, he should have pocketed a part of it. “However, I have not,” he said.
Meanwhile, the issue has assumed political stridency in the State as the former Chief Minister Harish Rawat said that the charge of Marandi has substantiated the rumours that swirled for a long time that a huge amount of money had been pressed to buy the MlAs. He added that the episode has reflected the character of BJP.
Notably, JVM-P president and former Chief Minister of Jharkhand Babulal Marandi had made a sensational disclosure on Friday in Ranchi, claiming that a sum of Rs 11 crore had been used by the BJP to lure away six of his party MlAs after the Assembly elections 2014.
He had also showed copy of the letter purportedly written by the then State BJP president Ravindra Rai to the party’s national President Amit Shah which had purportedly mentioned the exchange of money used in the horse trading of the MlAs.
Marandi had, further, claimed that the money to poach his MlAs had been paid under the instructions of Trivendra Singh Rawat who at that time was the state party in- charge. The JVM-P president had also met the State Governor Draupadi Murmu and demanded a CBI inquiry into the issue.
Pritam Singh demands CM’s resignation
latching on to the Jharkhand MlA bribery issue, Uttarakhand State Congress president Pritam Singh has demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. He said that the issue is very serious and an independent inquiry headed by a sitting judge of Supreme Court (SC) should be set up to investigate the charge of poaching of MlAs through exchange of money. Training his guns on the CM, Singh said that he should quit in pursuance of his much-vaunted zero tolerance on corruption rhetoric.