Horse trading alleged for RS election

Bhopal, Mar 18: Samajwadi Party MLA from Lanjhi constituency Kishore Samirite has accused Congress for having involved in horse trading. Showing Rs 10 lakh cash to media persons, he alleged that three persons including one Congress leader had approached him with cash.

Samrite, talking to media persons at his roon in MLA rest-house alleged that Congress offered him a bribe for voting in favour of its candidate Vivek Tankha who is contesting for Rajya Sabha election scheduled on March 28. Tankha is contesting as an Independent with the support of the Congress and other political parties including Samajwadi Party. Some of the SP legislators were also present with Tankha while filing nominations. On Monday, Samrite had openly announced not to vote for Tankha. Samrite alleged, “Since I refused to vote for Tankha, Congress leaders including the Leader of Opposition Jamuna Devi and other Congress leaders has been offering me upto Rs 30 lakh to vote for Tankha. Today, former Minister NP Prajapati came to me at my room and gave me a polythene packet containing Rs. 10 lakh”, Samrite said.

Samrite further stated that he was told that the money was advance for supporting Tankha during the polls and the remaining amount would be given later.” He also mentioned that the trio had come in an Ambassador Car bearing registration number MP-04-9000. He stated that instead of approaching police, he would report the mater to the Election Commission. None of the senior Congress leaders were available for comment. BJP has fielded Maya Singh, Prabhat Jha and Raghunandan Sharma for the above three seats. The ruling BJP has 166 MLAs in the house of 230 while it requires 174 votes to secure all the three seats in its favour.