Headlines
Maharashtra BJP red-faced over ex-minister's 'sting' revelations
Mumbai, June 26
Maharashtra's ruling Bharatiya
Janata Party was left red-faced on Friday when a purported sting
operation on a former minister led to airing of some embarrassing
revelations on various issues and individuals and has sought an
explanation from him.
The 'sting' on influential Mumbai
legislator Raj Purohit, a former minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP
government 1995-1999, was carried out by unidentified people and aired
on several local television channels besides going viral on various
social networking sites.
Hours after the videos were aired in
which Purohit's no-holds-barred 'Mann ki Baat' shows him raising
questions on the style of functioning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and BJP president Amit Shah, the BJP leader denied making any such
statements and demanded a forensic investigation as the voice in the
clips is not his.
"I have greatest respect for Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Chief Minister Devendra
Fadnavis is an ideal leader under whom the state is on the route to
progress," he said.
Taking strong note of the utterances, BJP
state president Raosaheb Patil Danve said: "I have summoned him for
personal discussions on the matter. We will first inquire about the
genuineness of the video CDs, and then the party would take appropriate
action."
In the sting, Purohit contends there is "no collective
decision-making in the BJP" and calls it a 'dhokha' (fraud), while
describing Modi and Amit Shah as "the two power centres in the country".
He
alleged that the business community in the country is unhappy over
certain decisions of the Modi government, including the move to unearth
black money.
"Half the country's economy runs on black money... I
interact daily with the top businessmen. Don't interfere in everything.
Let things continue as they are..." he advises in the video.
Throwing
open hints at Chief Minister Fadnavis' alleged nexus with the builder
lobby, Purohit claimed that the money power of Lodha Builders had
prevented him from becoming a minister in the current government.
"I
am suffering lot of injustice...I was a kingmaker...I am a very
dangerous MLA...I am one of the senior-most persons. Yes, I could have
been senior-most next to (Eknath) Khadse only...But I was not made
minister," Purohit claimed.
He said that the late union minister
Gopinath Munde never favoured an alliance with the Shiv Sena and "wanted
to be chief minister right from the beginning".
The legislator
added that if Munde had not died in a car crash and become the chief
minister, Fadnavis would have been just a minister.
On his
relations with another senior BJP leader, the late Pramod Mahajan,
Purohit said they were "closest" to each other, and he executed
Mahajan's plans.
To a question on Lodha Builders - who, like
legislator M.P. Lodha, are also the BJP's prominent functionaries -
Purohit said they spent lot of money during elections, running into
"crores of rupees".
Taking umbrage at his statement about
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray - that "he is a bogus
leader" - MNS activists vandalised Purohit's office in Kalbadevi in
south Mumbai.