“The truth is…”: BJP leader sends notice to Rahul Gandhi, Kharge in cash-for-vote case
BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde on Friday sent defamation notices to three senior Congress leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi. Former Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde has been accused of a cash-for-vote scam ahead of Wednesday’s assembly elections.
Vinod Tawde has claimed that the allegations of him distributing Rs 5 crore are “false and baseless”. Tawde has complained that the allegations have been made with the “sole intention to harm the party’s (BJP) prospects and to defame (me) in the eyes of right-thinking people”.
He has asserted in his legal notice that the Congress leaders are “well aware of the fact that they are circulating a completely false story… which they have fabricated themselves”. It was later shared online.
”Congress’s only job is to spread lies”
Vinod Tawde wrote in a post on X – ”Congress’s only job is to spread lies. In the false case of Nalasopara, I have sent a defamation notice to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, because they have spread lies in this case and damaged my and Bharatiya Janata Party’s image.”
He wrote, “The truth is before everyone that the alleged amount of Rs 5 crore was not found in the investigation of the Election Commission and the police. This matter is completely proof of the low level politics of the Congress.”
Controversy in Nalasopara assembly constituency
This allegation on Vinod Tawde was first made by a regional party Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) 24 hours before the voting started on Tuesday. BVA alleged that the saffron party’s Nalasopara candidate Rajan Naik was distributing cash in the presence of Tawde to influence voters.
Nalasopara assembly seat in Palghar district was formed in 2009 and since then BVA’s Kshitij Thakur is the MLA from this seat. He won by more than 43,000 votes in 2019. This time he is pitted against BJP’s Rajan Naik, Congress’ Sandeep Pandey and Vinod More of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Envelopes full of notes found
According to the BVA, envelopes full of notes were found at the hotel where Tawde and the BJP candidate were interacting with voters. In the viral video, BVA supporters are seen waving notes in front of Tawde. So far, the police have registered two cases.
Tawde is named in one of the cases, but it is a case of campaigning during the mandatory ‘silence’ period after the limit for campaigning was over. The second case is related to distribution of money, in which he is not mentioned.
According to district officials, Rs 9,93,000 in cash has been recovered. However, the BVA has alleged that Rs 5 crore had already been distributed and Tawde has a diary with details of those who received the money.
The BJP rejected the “baseless” allegations and called it a political stunt by the BVA on the eve of polling. The party said Tawde was holding a meeting with party workers to discuss election preparations.
Congress and NCP also jumped into the controversy
Congress has also jumped into this controversy. Along with it, its ally Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party faction has also joined it. Supriya Sule said, “If this is true, then I am surprised that senior leaders like Tawde were involved in it.” This controversy is going to add fuel to the fire of the ongoing political tug of war between the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. Earlier, the Election Commission had checked the bags of leaders while taking action against the distribution of cash for votes. Former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had fueled this controversy by objecting to the search of his bag. He had asked whether the bags of the ruling party leaders were also searched?
After this, the bags of senior BJP leaders and leaders of their allies including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde were also searched. The counting of votes for the Maharashtra Assembly elections will take place on Saturday and the results will be out with it.
