The Congress party has demanded that the Maha Vikas Aghadi government should take serious note of allegations made against the central probe agencies and the BJP by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut by ordering a high-level inquiry by the Maharashtra Police and the state Economic Offence Wing (EOW).
On the other hand, Shiv Sena’s another ally NCP said that EOW can conduct a probe into the cases pertaining to the extortion, bribery and scam by the ED officials and some BJP leaders.
However, BJP downplayed Raut’s charges made in the crowded press conference with a show of strength at the Shiv Sena headquarters Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar. BJP said Raut’s press conference was like 'Khoda Pahaad, Nikla Chuha' ('dig a mountain and find a mouse').
State Congress chief Nana Patole claimed that a conspiracy is underway to put pressure on the non-BJP leaders in Maharashtra by using the central agencies against them. ‘’We have repeatedly said that the BJP government at the Centre is trying to suppress the voice by blackmailing the opposition leaders. This is evident from the actions taken in Maharashtra over the last two years through ED, CBI, NCB, NIA. The BJP leaders are in a hurry to overthrow the government in the state and they are doing so by exerting pressure through the central government. But the MVA government is strong and all the alliance partners stand together,’’ he noted.
NCP Minister Nawab Malik said that the Maha Vikas Aaghadi partners are not scared by actions from central probe agencies. ‘’Sanjay Raut has exposed the scam in the information technology department in Maharashtra and talked about Haryana connections. They can be probed by EOW. Raut has also announced to release further documents" he added.
Patole said that the Congress party had repeatedly said that many scams had taken place during the BJP led government but the former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis government had given a clean chit to all of them without taking any action. Patole demanded that the MVA government should also investigate the scams that have happened in the previous government’s tenure.
State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil said merely making such accusations does nothing. ‘’If there is evidence, give it to the investigating agencies and if it does not work, go to court. No one is afraid of such hollow threats,’’ he added.
