Madhya Pradesh BJP has filed police complaints against Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, state Congress chief Kamal Nath and other Congress leaders for sharing a ‘fake letter’ to make allegations against the BJP government of taking 50 per cent commission from contractors to make payments.
Minister Vishvas Sarang led a delegation of BJP leaders to the crime branch office in Bhopal and submitted a complaint seeking FIR against the Congress leaders. In Indore, city BJP president Gaurav Randive led a similar delegation to Sanyongitaganj police station and also made a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), seeking registration of cases against the Congress leaders.
Speaking in Bhopal, Sarang said, “Congress has opened a shop of lies and hatred instead of a ‘Muhabbat ki dukan’ (shop of love). Today, we have submitted a memorandum to the Crime Branch, located in MP Nagar, demanding registration of FIR against Priyanka Vadra, Kamal Nath and Congress leaders who shared the fake letter on social media."
The Congress had launched a synchronized attack from state to national level on the BJP government on Friday, accusing it of huge corruption by ‘collecting 50 per cent commission from petty contractors’. It was on the lines of ’40 per cent’ corruption charges raised by Congress against BJP government in Karnataka, where assembly polls were held recently.
The allegations in Madhya Pradesh, which has been taken up by party’s national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh at the national level, were based on a viral letter that was allegedly written by an Gwalior-based association of petty contractors to the chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, through its Gwalior bench. The BJP had called the letter fake on the same day while talking to THE WEEK.
The ‘letter’ was first shared by Madhya Pradesh Congress ex-president Arun Yadav on the X platform on Thursday. But Gandhi, Nath and Ramesh did not use the letter facsimile on social media and rather used newspaper cuttings based on the charges of Yadav to tweet the about 50 per cent commission allegations.
Meanwhile, THE WEEK could not trace the letter's writer ‘Gyanendra Awasthi’ or his address (in Gwalior), and even an email sent to the mentioned address bounced back.
On Saturday, ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sagar, senior BJP leaders in the state launched a counterattack on the Congress warning of legal action against the use of a fake letter, unless evidence to the contrary was given.
State BJP president V.D. Sharma said, “I have always said that Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath are lie-speaking machines. Yesterday, they made a record of speaking lies. They got central leadership including Priyanka Gandhi to make tweets on the basis of a fake letter. This is the true character of the Congress. The Congress leadership will have to reply to this. We will take legal action.”
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that he got the so-called letter checked by the state intelligence, but they could not track the letter's writer or the address mentioned on the letter. “There is no such person, no such address of the organization. The organization and the letter are fake. This is part of Congress’s negative strategy and its dangerous intentions. They cannot compete with us on positive aspects and developmental work, so they are resorting to such tactics.”
Home Minister Narottam Mishra also said, “In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress, which is without any issue, is doing politics with a disgusting mentality. State Congress leaders first got Rahul Gandhi to lie and now got Priyanka Gandhi to make false tweets. Priyanka ji, give proof of your tweets, otherwise we have all options open for action.”
Responding to the BJP's action, Kamal Nath said, “There are thousands of cases of corruption against the BJP. How many FIRs will they file? (against Congress).” Talking about PM Modi’s visit to lay the foundation stone of Sant Ravidas temple-cum-memorial in Sagar, Nath said, “Now the BJP is remembering everyone and everything including the dalit people (Sant Ravidas being revered by the community). They think that in this way they can distract the people and mislead them. But the people have decided to give a love-filled send-off to Shivraj Singh ji.”