Mayawati dares BJP to reveal bank deposit details

An unusually relaxed Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday dared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government at the Centre to reveal deposits made by the BJP and other political parties in their bank accounts both before and after November 8, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to scrap 86% of the currency in circulation.

She was responding to the leaked information yesterday that the BSP had deposited ₹105 crore in its bank account after November 8. Sources in the government had also leaked the information that her brother’s account had also swelled by a little over ₹1 crore. It was reported that the Income Tax department would scrutinise both the accounts.

Addressing the media in Lucknow on Tuesday, Mayawati declared that her party would account for every paisa deposited in its account. She claimed that the money was collected from across the country following a membership drive. The cash, she said, was deposited in the party’s central office in high denominations because they were easier to be transported.

She also claimed that she had delayed depositing the amount because from the third week of August till the middle of November, she was camping in Uttar Pradesh and did not get time to visit Delhi and scrutinise the accounts. The notification on demonetisation on November 8 forced her hands and the money was subsequently deposited in the bank account. “There is no wrongdoing and all rules have been followed,” she said.

The leak, she alleged, was meant to malign her and the BSP ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election due early next year. But it would not have any effect on BSP’s electoral prospects, she added. On the contrary the campaign by the BJP and a section of the media would only boost her chances.

Taking a dig at BJP national president Amit Shah, she said that he must have been asleep when she and party leader Satish Mishra had rebutted his allegations on the Taj Corridor. It was time Shah woke up, she said, to the fact that it was a NDA Government at the Centre and a central public sector undertaking had spent just Rs 17 crore on the corridor. She or her government, she claimed, had played no role in it.