Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 22: Taking an offensive stand on charges of “buying votes” against him, the BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde on Friday slapped Rs 100 crores defamation notice on three senior Congress leaders including the party national president Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and the party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate in the Maharashtra “vote-for-cash” case to bribe voters, which both he and the BJP firmly rejected.
The former Maharashtra minister who was accused by the Congress leaders of distributing Rs five crores in cash in a hotel in Virar a day before the polling for the 288-member Maharashtra state Assembly on Wednesday after over Rs 9.93 lakhs in cash was recovered by the Election Commission officials from the hotel he was staying, Mr Tawde instead of being defensive hit back the Congress leaders claiming that they were deliberately spreading a lie to defame him and his party knowing well that they were “planting a fabricated story” on the media.
The allegations, Mr Tawde complained, were made “with the sole intention of damaging the prospects of the party (the BJP) and also defaming (me)… in the eyes of right-thinking people.” The Congress leaders, he insisted in his legal notice, were “very well aware of the fact that you are publishing a totally false story… fabricated by you” that was then disseminated online.
The cash-for-vote row created a political storm on the eve of the Maharashtra Assembly elections and the allegations in question were first made on Tuesday – 24 hours before voting was to begin – by a regional party, the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi. The BVA claimed the saffron party’s Nallasopara candidate, Rajan Naik, was distributing cash – in Mr Tawde’s presence – to influence voters.
The Nallasopara seat – in Palghar district – was formed in 2009 and has since been held by the BVA’s Kshitij Thakur, who won by over 43,000 votes in 2019. This time he faces Naik, the Congress’ Sandeep Pandey, and Vinod More of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. According to the BVA, envelopes full of cash were found at a hotel at which Mr Tawde and the BJP candidate were interacting with voters.
Viral videos showed BVA supporters waving currency notes in front of Mr Tawde. The BVA president Hitendra Thakur had said, “Some BJP leaders informed me that BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde is coming to Virar to disburse Rs 5 crore to influence voters. I thought a national leader like him would not stoop to such a trivial task. But I saw him here. I urge the Election Commission to take action against him and the BJP,” Thakur said.
The Election Commission seized a total of Rs 9,93,900 in cash from the hotel where Tawde was staying and sealed the premises amid protests by the BVA workers demanding Tawde’s immediate arrest. Police said three FIRs have been filed so far at the Tulinj police station over the violation of Model Code of Conduct, alleged cash-for-vote scam, and illegal press conference by BVA and BJP. Mr Tawde has been named in one but that is for campaigning during the mandated ‘silence’ period. In the second, which deals with the distribution of cash, he is not mentioned. While the district officials said ₹ 9.93 lakhs in cash was recovered, the BVA has alleged ₹ 5 crore had already been distributed, and that Mr Tawde has a diary detailing the recipients.
“Kharge, Gandhi and Shrinate said Vinod Tawde was caught red-handed with Rs 5 crores which he was distributing to voters. They just wanted to defame me and my party. I am seriously hurt. I come from a regular middle-class family. I have never done anything like that in the last 40 years, I have been in politics. Congress leaders wanted to defame me, party and my leaders so they purposefully told these lies to the media and people, hence I have issued a court notice to them that they should apologise publicly within 24 hours or face the action,” he said.
“The truth is before everyone… the alleged amount of ₹ 5 crore was not recovered during the investigation by the Election Commission and the police. This case is proof of Congress’ low-level politics,” he said. The BJP had trashed the “baseless” allegations and called it a political stunt by the BVA on the eve of polling. The party said Mr Tawde was meeting with party workers to discuss poll prep. The Congress has also gotten involved, as has the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by ally Sharad Pawar, for whom Supriya Sule said, “I am surprised a senior leader like Tawde was involved – if this is true.”
The controversy, which will add further fuel to the political fire raging between the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliances, follows another over checking of bags of political leaders by the Election Commission as part of measures against distributing cash for votes. Former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray set that ball rolling by red-flagging searches of his bag while asking if those from ruling party leaders were also searched. Subsequently, the bags of senior BJP leaders and those of its allies, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, were also searched.
In his notice, Mr Tawde accused the Congress leaders of making false and baseless accusations of money distribution “with the sole intention of damaging the prospects of the party” and himself. He also criticised them for not checking the facts before levelling these allegations and failing to perform their duties as office bearers of the Congress party.
“The entire imputation made by you all are totally false, baseless, malicious and mala fide,” the notice read, adding that Tawde was not involved in any such illegal activity and was aware of his duties as a responsible office bearer of a national political party. Tawde demanded an unconditional apology from Gandhi, Kharge and Shrinate within 24 hours, failing to do which would initiate criminal proceedings.
As the controversy had erupted on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi joined in to take a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the saffron party. “Modiji, from whose SAFE did these 5 crores come? Who looted the public’s money and sent you in the tempo?” the Lok Sabha LoP had said in a post on X.
Mr Kharge also accused Mr Modi of making Maharashtra “SAFE” through money power and muscle power. “On one hand, there is a deadly attack on the former Home Minister of the state, on the other hand, a senior BJP leader is caught red-handed with Rs 5 crore in cash,” he said on X. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also joined the bandwagon, accusing the BJP, its allies and the “Mahajhoothi Sarkar” of misusing power and resources to woo voters.