Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 6: The Congress on Thursday became the 100-member party in the Lok Sabha after Vishal Patil who was elected as an independent from Sangli Constituency in Maharashtra officially joined Congress.
The Congress had won 99 seats in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections, nearly doubling its 2019 tally when it felt short by three seats to get the status of recognised opposition.
Meanwhile, the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Thursday demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the rise and fall in the stock market around the time exit poll results were announced.
Gandhi, who has emerged victorious in Lok Sabha polls from both Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in Kerala, asked: “Why did the Prime Minister, Home Minister give investment advice to 5 crore families? What is the connection between the BJP, the fake pollsters, and dubious foreign investors who invested one day before the exit polls were announced and made a huge profit at the cost of 5 crore families?”
Questioning the “dubious transactions” in the stock market transactions on the days preceding and following the exit polls which went haywire this time, Mr Gandhi said never in the past any prime minister or senior ministers publicly recommended stock investments to the people. “We demand a JPC into this, we are absolutely convinced that this is a scam,” Gandhi said.
“Why did the PM and Union Home Minister give specific investment advice to the five crore families investing in the stock market? Is it their job to give investment advice? Why were both interviews given to the same media owned by the same business group which is also under SEBI investigation for manipulating stock?” Gandhi asked at a press briefing.
“What is the connection between the BJP, the fake exit pollsters and the dubious foreign investors who invested one day before the exit polls were announced and made a huge profit at the cost of five crore salaries?” he added.
“We demand a JPC into this. We are convinced that this is a scam. Somebody has made thousands of crores of rupees at the cost of Indian retail investors and the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister have given an indication to buy. So we demand today a joint parliamentary committee to investigate this,” Rahul Gandhi said.
On May 23, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the stock market would hit new highs after the Lok Sabha election results. “I can say with confidence that on June 4, as BJP hits record numbers, the stock market will also hit new record highs,” he had said. Earlier on May 13, the union home minister Amit Shah had requested the media not to link the stock market movements directly to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. “The market has nosedived in the past as well. So one should not link it directly to elections. Anyway, some rumours may have fuelled it (the fall). In my opinion, buy before June 4. The market is going to shoot-up,” the minister had said in a media interview.
Rahul Gandhi alleged that PM Modi and Union home minister who had data on actual election results, advised retail investors to buy stock. “This is a broader issue than just the Adani issue. It is connected to the Adani issue, but this is a much broader issue. This is directly the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, who is privy to data on actual election results, who has IB reports, who have their own data, who are advising retail investors to buy stock,” he said.
“This has never happened before. The Prime Minister has never commented on the stock market before. This is the first time the Prime Minister has commented very interestingly and multiple times, one after the other, saying that the stock market is going to boom,” he added.
“At the same time, he has information that the exit polls are wrong. He has information that he knows what is going to happen because he has IB data and he also has his own party data,” Rahul Gandhi further alleged.
Meanwhile, amid talks over Cabinet formation, all NDA MPs will meet at 11 am on Friday in the central hall of Parliament. Along with the NDA leaders, some BJP Chief Ministers, deputy Chief Ministers, office bearers of the party allies are also invited.