KEONJHOR: Responding to the allegations made by Congress against the BJP, soon after three MLAs of the grand old party were held with a huge amount of cash in West Bengal, Union Minister Arjun Munda on Sunday said the grand old party make allegations to hide their corrupt practices.
Munda responded to the baseless accusations levelled by the Congress party after the grand old party alleged BJP of toppling the government in Jharkhand through "Operation Lotus".
Congress made accusations against BJP after three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand were detained in Bengal after "a huge amount" of cash was found in their vehicle in West Bengal, the party accused the BJP of toppling the government in Jharkhand through "Operation Lotus".
Jharkhand party chief Rajesh Thakur also alleged that this is a conspiracy of the BJP to destabilize the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance government in a state like Maharashtra.
Responding to Rajesh Thakur's allegations, the Union Minister said, "The Congress is making baseless allegations. Congress is accusing BJP of destabilizing the government in Jharkhand to hide its corrupt practices. Congress party has a habit of levelling baseless allegations against others to hide their own mistakes under the carpet. Trying to cover up your mistakes with words will not do. The truth is visible to everyone. A huge amount of cash was recovered from their car. They (Congress MLAs) must explain where all the cash recovered from the car came from. They have to tell what were they doing in Bengal with a huge amount of cash."
He further said that the probe agency is doing its investigation and they will find out all the facts.
"How is BJP conspiring in this, they were carrying cash in their car. Congress should first reveal why did the MLAs go to Bengal, where were they going and what is the matter. The agency is doing its investigation and the agency will find out all the facts," he said.
"The cash that has been recovered is proof that it belongs to the party. They should tell where it came from, how it came and where they were taking this money to. They should give clarification on it," added Arjun Munda.
Irfan Ansari, MLA from Jamtara, Rajesh Kachhap, MLA from Khijri and Naman Bixal, MLA from Kolebira were arrested after a huge amount of cash was recovered from their cars in Howarah on Saturday evening.
The Police said that they acted on a tip-off they conducted the search and arrested three Congress MLAs.
"On the information of the informer, we carried out this action. We had received information that a huge amount of cash was being carried in this vehicle. After which the vehicle was stopped at Ranihati in the Panchla police station area. When the car was searched, a large amount of cash was recovered from it," said Police.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Congress alleged a conspiracy by the BJP to destabilise the state government.
"It is in BJP's nature to try and destabilize any government which is not theirs. The same has been done against Chief Minister Hemant Soren's government. The only reason they were given money (by BJP) is to make the government fall," Bandhu Tirkey, Jharkhand Congress working President told ANI.
Rajesh Thakur referred to the Maharashtra political crisis that ended last month with the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray government after a faction of Shiv Sena MLAs revolted against the party chief, and stayed in Assam's Guwahati.
"Everyone saw how Assam became the focal point to topple governments, drama happened for 15 days and ultimately the Maharashtra govt was toppled... this indicates that there's a conspiracy to destabilize the Jharkhand government. Things will be clearer in coming times."
Referring to Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis-led government of Maharashtra through E-D, the Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "The BJP's 'Operation Lotus' in Jharkhand stands exposed tonight in Howrah. The game plan of 'Hum Do' in Delhi is to do in Jharkhand what they did in Maharashtra by installing E-D duo."