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Rs 15 Crore Bribe, Promise Of Poll Ticket, Raid Threat To Gujarat MLAs, Alleges Congress

"Below-the-belt tactics to lure MLAs."
Police frisking cars going inside The Golf Village Eagleton resort as Congress MLAs from Gujarat are staying here at Bidadi outside on July 29, 2017 in Bengaluru.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Police frisking cars going inside The Golf Village Eagleton resort as Congress MLAs from Gujarat are staying here at Bidadi outside on July 29, 2017 in Bengaluru.

Congress MLA from Abdasa constituency, Shaktisinh Gohil, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) last night of offering as much as Rs 15 crore and the promise of a ticket to contest the next elections to poach the party's MLAs ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls. He also said that Congress leaders in the state were being threatened with IT and CBI raids.

"The tribal MLA was made to sit in a vehicle by a police officer who was earlier accused of involvement in a fake encounter and was offered Rs 15 crore and the guarantee of a ticket to contest the next polls. After they won the MLA, who is a simple person, they began using him to target other MLAs," Gohil was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.

Three Congress leaders have come out with reports of how they were approached with bribes and a chance to meet Amit Shah. Punabhai Gamit from Vyara, Mangal Gavit from Dang and Ishvarbhai Patel from Dharampur each claimed that they were money and a ticket in the 2017 assembly elections if they changed side.

After losing six MLAs, and being almost on the verge of losing seven more, Congress cloistered its remaining 44 MLAs over the weekend at a five star resort in Bengaluru.

"If it was luxury that these MLAs were after then they could have accepted the Rs 15 crore offers from the BJP and toured the world. They have all gathered here to uphold democracy," Gohil told Express.

In an interesting report, the Express said that the Eagleton resort near Bengaluru, where the Congress MLAs were staying have been asked to pay a penalty of Rs 982 crore to regularise 77 acres of land allegedly encroached by it.

"Gujarat Congress leaders are making allegations against the BJP in Bengaluru. It is like a thief attacking a cop. If their leaders are leaving them, it has nothing to do with us," Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters in Delhi.

Ahmed Patel, the political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, still has the numbers, needing 45 votes. But Congress will have to make sure no more of its MLAs cross over.

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