NEW DELHI: BJP on Saturday accused Congress of using its state governments like ATMs to pump “illicit money” into its general election campaign and claimed that if the opposition party comes to power, corruption will rule again.
Citing documents to hurl “Tughlaq Road poll scam”, a term used by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi to target Congress in his speeches, BJP spokesperson
Meenakshi Lekhi alleged that the opposition party is using its state governments for collecting money to fight elections.
“Congress-run state governments have become ‘election ATMs’ for the party,” Lekhi said and named several people who were raided by probe agencies recently to claim they were involved in channelling “illicit” money to Congress.
Income tax raids were conducted across 52 places and Rs 281 crore was recovered, she said.
Lekhi said several of those given cash are candidates for Lok Sabha polls from
Madhya Pradesh
and “it is sad that money is being diverted from funds allocated for the poor”. Accusing Congress of being directly involved in this “scam”, she alleged that if it comes to power, corruption will become a trade.
BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia also attacked Congress over the issue, alleging that since it has come to power in states like Madhya Pradesh, it has been involved in various “scams” to make money to influence the general elections. the PM had recently alleged that Madhya Pradesh has become an ATM for the Congress, as he cited IT raids on aides of CM
Kamal Nath.
Lekhi said it is quite surprising that Congress’ top leadership has not uttered a single word about the raids.