The Congress on Monday accused the BJP of encouraging corruption and horse trading in the biennial election of the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh by supporting Independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra.
The Congress on Monday accused the BJP of encouraging corruption and horse trading in the biennial election of the Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh by supporting Independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra.
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari, while addressing a press conference here on Monday, said that the BJP could no longer distance itself from the candidature of Ms Mahapatra because BJP MLAs had proposed her name.
“The BJP has only 7 surplus votes after fielding its official candidate Shiv Pratap Shukla. It is more than obvious that the party will resort to corruption and horse trading to ensure the victory of its second candidate. This amounts to maligning the image of Uttar Pradesh because the entire media is writing about horse trading of legislators,” he said.
Explaining the mathematics of the RS polls, Mr Tiwari said that the BJP-supported Independent candidate, despite manipulations, would not be able to emerge victorious because she is short of 27 votes.
“If the BJP does not resort to horse trading and corrupt practices, where is the candidate going to get extra votes from ” he asked.
Mr Tiwari claimed that the BJP cadres were also upset at the manner in which a rank outsider had been imposed on them by the party high command. “This is going to make the BJP pay a heavy price in the upcoming assembly elections in the state”, he pointed.
Replying to a question on cross voting, the veteran Congress leader said that legislators were intelligent enough to know that they could lose their membership of the house because they are required to cast an open vote in the RS polls.
“The most recent example is the Uttarakhand Court verdict which led to the disqualification of 9 Congress MLA for their anti-party activities outside the house. After this, no right thinking MLA will risk his membership because there are still a few months left for the assembly elections”, he said.
He said that the BJP had now lost the moral authority to talk against corruption because its own leaders were promoting corruption.
