Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Knife is out against Congress law-maker Jitu Patwari for making an incorrect statement in the House against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party legislators, including its state president VD Sharma and Home Minister Narottam Mishra, demanded the scalp of Patwari.
Patwari said that the government had paid Rs 40 crore for high tea and food for certain events held at the BJP office. Those events were, however, held at the Chief Minister’s residence.
Patwari made the statement during a discussion over the no-confidence motion in House on Wednesday and on Thursday.
When Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was replying to the no-trust motion, he also said that the government had not spent a single penny on any events at the BJP office.
The events, mentioned in the statement of Patwari, were held at his residence, Chouhan said.
Patwari’s statement raised a political cacophony in the state. At a press conference, Mishra said the BJP law-makers had decided to file a complaint against Patwari for misleading the House.
Mishra called the Congress a bus without a driver and a conductor. Both Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president Kamal Nath and leader of opposition Govind Singh were absent from the assembly on Thursday.
The Home Minister said, “It was the Congress government when the question was raised. The party leaders mounted pressure on the officials to prepare a report to attack the BJP government as well as the party”.
He said “One of the hotels of the MP Tourism Department is engaged with the government and the party. The government paid the amount for all those events. Similarly, the party paid the money for the events which it organised at the party office.”
Mishra said the Congress MLA had presented incomplete facts before the House.
According to reports, Patwari’s allegations were related to Congress legislator Kunal Chaudhary’s question raised against the BJP during the Congress rule in 2019.
The Tourism Department gave the information to the Congress government that those meetings had been held at the BJP office from 2014 to 2018. On the contrary, they were held at the Chief Minister’s Office.
Patwari, however, said if he was proven wrong, he would resign from the membership of the House.
In the same vein, Sharma said the allegations made by Patwari are baseless. After the evidence presented Mishra before the media, it is clear that Patwari was lying to the House.
Therefore, Patwari should resign from the House membership keeping his promise, Sharma said. He made the statement at a press conference at the BJP office.
He said, “The party has paid for each event that it organised.”
Now the BJP legislators will complain to the Ethics Committee of the Assembly against Patwari and take legal action against him.”
