Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s alleged ‘cash dole’ to voters in Palghar – which kicked up a massive political storm – drew the attention of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi with the Congress party demanding the arrest of BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde.
In an X post, Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the incident that has caused huge embarrassment to the BJP just a day before the crucial Maharashtra Assembly elections – with a possible adverse fallout.
“Modiji, from whose safe have you retrieved this Rs Five Crore? Who has looted the peoples’ money and dispatched it to you in a tempo?” said Rahul Gandhi.
Simultaneously, Ramesh Chennithala, the AICC General Secretary in charge of the poll-bound state, has demanded the immediate arrest of Tawde as he was caught red-handed in the ‘cash for votes’ scam that rocked the national polity.
“In the Maharashtra Assembly election campaign, the BJP and its allies (MahaYuti) have blatantly misused power and money as they are fearing defeat. Tawde was apprehended in the act by citizens while distributing cash to voters, and Rs 10 lakhs was seized. Police and Election Commission of India officials were present at the spot but Tawde has not been arrested,” said Chennithala.
He pointed out that as per the ECI rules, no outsider is permitted to enter a constituency after the poll campaign ends, yet Tawde reportedly held a meeting with his party workers in the Virar-Nallasopara (Palghar) constituency, “thereby, admitting to violating the code of conduct”.
As the fracas cooled this evening, the ECI entered the picture by lodging an FIR against Tawde even as the central and state BJP leaders vehemently denied the allegations of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) in Palghar.
“This is not limited to Palghar… Similar efforts to buy votes with cash are being carried out by the BJP and its allies across the state, and the ECI must take strict action on these incidents, and arrest those involved to ensure a free and fair election,” said Chennithala emphatically.
The ‘cash-dole’ scam has earned condemnation from Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (SP)-Shiv Sena (UBT), CPM, PWP and other parties in the state.
Among the prominent ones who flayed the incident included NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar, Working President Supriya Sule, General Secretary Jitendra Awhad, state President Jayant Patil, Clyde Crasto, Mahesh Tapase; Congress’ state President Nana F. Patole, Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan, Vijay Wadettiwar, Balasaheb Thorat, Atul Londhe, SS (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray, Ambadas Danve, Aditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut, Priyanka Chaturvedi, CPM’s Ashok Dhawale, VBA’s Prakash Ambedkar, Rekha Thakur, and bigwigs of other political parties.
Meanwhile, political circles are abuzz with the likely fallout of the ‘cash-dole’ disaster in public minds as they queue up outside polling booths tomorrow.
However, the Maharashtra Police and Chief Electoral Office’s teams all over the state are keeping a strong vigil on any suspicious developments before voting starts on Wednesday morning.
