Congress tries to put BJP in dock in housing scam

NEW DELHI: Congress on Wednesday sought to put BJP in the dock in the Mumbai Housing Society scam alleging that one of its beneficiaries is "very very close" to Nitin Gadkari, triggering strong protest from the main opposition.

"While raising the Adarsh issue, they are not taking the name Suresh Prabhu, who was a minister in the NDA regime or Sancheti who is supposed to be very very close to the BJP president Nitin Gadkari.

"According to reports, Sancheti, whose monthly salary is just Rs 8600 has purchased a flat worth Rs 60 lakh. There is speculation in media that Sancheti is a proxy for Nitin Gadkari," party spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed told reporters.

Reacting sharply to it, BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar dubbed the allegations as baseless and threatened to take legal action against the Congress leader if the charges were not proved within 72 hours.

Ahmed, however, sought to claim high moral ground for his party on the corruption issues and accused BJP of practising "double standards" in the matter.

"Chief Minister Ashok Chavan resigned after the controversy in Adarsh case. Similarly, Suresh Kalmadi had to resign from the post of Congress Parliamentary Party secretary after the controversy on Commonwealth Games.

"BJP should explain what action it proposes against its senior leaders Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Tarlochan Singh who were defending Kalmadi and are seen in TV footages with the Commonwealth Organizing Committee chairman. They should also spell out their stand on Sancheti and Suresh Prabhu," Ahmed said.

He alleged that BJP is practising double standards on the issue of corruption and questioned the main opposition party "why they did not demand that investigations in these cases should also include these aspects".