On eve of Gujarat by-polls, Congress seeks SC probe into BJP’s hand behind MLAs’ resignations

NEW DELHI: On the eve of the assembly by-elections to eight seats in Gujarat, which includes seats which fell vacant after the resignations of five sitting Congress MLAs before the Rajya Sabha elections from the state last June, the Congress on Monday produced what it called “more evidence” of the BJP leadership luring its former legislators with huge amounts of money.

At an AICC briefing, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi, party in-charge of Gujarat Rajiv Satav and senior Gujarat Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia played a brief video clipping which purportedly showed a former Congress MLA, Somabhai Patel, claiming that he was offered money for quitting. The Congress leaders said he spoke about “BJP leadership offering him over Rs 10 crore” for quitting his membership from the assembly. While ET can’t vouch for the veracity of the video clipping, a few weeks back, AICC had brought what it called similar “evidence” against Congress turncoats –– Akshay Patel, JV Kakadia and Pradyuman Jadeja. All of them are now fighting the byelections on the BJP ticket.

Demanding the filing of an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act and a probe by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court into the resignations of the sitting Congress MLAs, Abhishek Singhvi said, “From Manipur to Goa to Karnataka and Gujarat, we have seen BJP’s excessive greed for power which makes them say ‘we will win or lose elections, but we must be in power at all cost’. This is the real truth which all these incidents illustrate. For the BJP, the legislature has become a forum for business to do trade, trafficking and transaction. This way, the anti-defection law has been made irrelevant”.


Singhvi said if the latest evidence was about Somabhai Patel, earlier the Congress had similarly exposed the deeds involving Akshay Patel, Kakadia and Pradyuman Jadeja.

Modhwadia said, “All central agencies are working at the behest of the Union government. So, an inquiry by a Supreme Court Judge should alone be done into the matter.”