NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Vinod Tawde on Friday sent a legal notice to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and spokesperson Supriya Shrinate over the “cash-for-vote” allegations, which Tawde has explicitly refuted.
Tawde said he was “seriously hurt” by the charges and that the Congress “purposefully spoke untruth to the media and people” to defame him and the BJP.
The BJP leader has said in case Congress leaders don’t apologise, he will initiate criminal proceedings under Section 356 (for defamation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and also civil proceedings for the damages of Rs 100 crore.
“On the eve of Maharashtra Assembly elections, 19th November, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party spokesperson Supriya said that Vinod Tawde was caught red-handed with Rs 5 crores distributing to voters and all kind of dramatic statement. They just wanted to defame me and my party,” Tawde said.
BJP’s general secretary further said: “I am seriously hurt. I come from a regular middle-class family, for the last 40 years, I have been in politics but I have never done anything like that. Congress leaders wanted to defame me, party and my leaders so they purposefully spoke this untruth to the media and people, hence I have issued a court notice to them that they should apologise publicly or face the action.”
The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Tuesday, a day before the polling, attacked BJP over the controversy around Vinod Tawde allegedly distributing money to voters.
Congress’s Rahul Gandhi said on X, “Modiji, this Rs 5 crore has come from whose safe? Who looted the public’s money and sent you in the tempo?” Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said the alleged cash for votes case was BJP’s ‘note jihad, and Supriya Sule of NCP (SP) wondered where so much cash had come from post-demonetisation.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge posted on X, “PM Modi wants to make Maharashtra ‘safe’ with ‘money power’ and ‘muscle power.’ On one hand, there is a deadly attack on the former home minister (Anil Deshmukh) of the state, on the other hand, a senior BJP leader is caught red-handed with Rs 5 crore in cash. The public will answer this by voting tomorrow.”
Reacting to the allegation, Tawde in his initial response had said: “There are CCTV cameras in the hotel room. I simply came to meet party workers. ”
“The Election Commission officials videographed the room. For 40 years, I was in politics and never distributed money,” he added.
