BHUBANESWAR: In a fresh attack on Congress, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday said the world knew that Dheeraj Sahu, the Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, was the ATM of the Gandhi family. A day after the Congress MP broke his silence over the recovery of Rs 351 crore from his business establishments during income tax raids, Pradhan told mediapersons, “The world knows Dheeraj Sahu was the ATM of the Gandhi family. He was elected to Rajya Sabha thrice with the blessings of the Gandhi family and his closeness with the family is well known.”
On Sahu’s clarification that the money collected by the I-T department has nothing to do with the Congress, Pradhan said, “When did we say the money belongs to the Congress party. Everyone in Jharkhand knows that Sahu is the ATM of the Gandhi family and it is an open secret.”
Pradhan said the question now is where did the money come from. It has now come to notice that the Congress MP has been utilising his closeness with the Gandhi family to influence the excise policy of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bangal and Odisha. The I-T raids are on and many things will come to public domain, he said.
Earlier, questioning the silence of the state government on the huge haul of money and the excise policy of the state, Pradhan had said no one will be spared by the Narendra Modi government.The BJD on Saturday targeted Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for trying to defame Odisha for his own political interest.In a press statement, BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said Odisha BJP leaders as well the Union Education minister habitually make false and misleading allegations to defame Odisha.
Patra said BJP leaders never praise when good work is done in the state. “When Odisha hosted the World Cup hockey twice, when the RBI appreciated Odisha for being the number one state in the country for having best financial management and loan management or when Odisha was acclaimed internationally the best State in disaster management, Pradhan never said a good word,” he added.