Maha BJP raised Rs 500 crore to topple Raj govt: Congress

Mumbai, July 17 (IANS) In a sensational statement, the Congress' Maharashtra unit on Friday alleged that the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party raised Rs 500 crore from the state to help topple the Rajasthan government during the recent political crisis there.

Congress state General Secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that the state BJP leaders allegedly collected the amount from various businessmen and builders to overthrow the elected Congress government in Rajasthan by buying out its MLAs.

So far, the state BJP has not reacted to the Congress' serious allegations, while Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis is currently in New Delhi.

"The BJP government at the Centre has been attempting to remove the opposition governments in various states by deploying money power, and investigating agencies like the CBI, the ED and the IT," said Sawant.

Now, he claimed that the BJP leaders are being used and they had allegedly also helped remove the Congress-JDS government in Karnataka in July last year.

"The Karnataka MLAs were kept under police custody at a Mumbai hotel during the (former) BJP-led government herea... The people of Maharashtra have witnessed meetings being held at the residence of a senior BJP state minister at that time," Sawant noted.

Now, he said, that the party has received reliable information that the state BJP leaders had allegedly collected Rs 500 crore from builders and businessmen which was sent to buy MLAs and dislodge the Congress regime in Rajasthan.

"We have discussed the issue with Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. Even he had received similar information from his department. The Rajasthan government's Special Operations Group and audio tapes confirm that there was large-scale horse-trading by the BJP there," Sawant added.

The Congress leader said that Deshmukh has agreed to a request by the ruling ally to examine the matter and trace out the mastermind in the Maharashtra BJP who was indulging in such dirty politics in a democracy.