BHOPAL: An independent MLA Dinesh Rai ‘Munmun,’ who recently joined the BJP has said that he sold his conscience and mortgaged self for three months by joining the ruling party in Madhya Pradesh – a development which has come as a huge embarrassment to the BJP.
A video showing the MLA (now a BJP legislator) from Seoni seat of Seoni district, Dinesh Rai has gone viral over the social media. In the video Rai is seen saying, “Mai koi jan boojh ke qurbani thodi diya hoon..isliye kyonki koi kaam hohi nahi rahaa thaa…Seoni mein koi dhyan de hi nahi raha thaa, mantri hote toh sab dhyaan dete. Toh maine vahi kiya dost, girwi rakha hoon apne aap ko teen mahine ke liye (I have sacrificed self because no development work was going on in Seoni, no one was bothered about the district. Had there been a minister from Seoni everyone would focused attention here. I’ve mortgaged self only for three months).”
Rai is seen saying further to his supporters, “Maine apne aap ka imaan becha hai, jo sher ki tarah ji raha thaa, aaj haath jod raha hoon (I’ve sold my conscience, I lived life like a lion, but am now a man with folded hands).”
He adds “it’s only a matter of three months, if I get the pending works of my constituency completed, I’ll stay with them, else I’ll be back where I was earlier.”
With the video going viral over social media on Friday, Rai alleged that his statements were being distorted as part of a political conspiracy by vested political interests to defame him. “My statements have been distorted and the video has been doctored to defame me. I’m committed to the BJP ideology and will work for the party’s win in 2018 and 2019 polls.”
BJP state spokesperson Rahul Kothari played down the matter and defended Rai, who is now a BJP MLA. “Rai is a seasoned and serious politician, whose commitment to the BJP cannot be questioned.”
In a late night dramatic development on May 3, just a few hours before BJP national president’s arrival in Bhopal, the independent legislator from Seoni seat Dinesh Rai ‘Munmun’ had joined the BJP at the party’s state headquarters in the MP capital.
He is considered close to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as well as state Congress president Kamal Nath and Congress MP Vivek Tankha.