With Shah in the know, Mumbai BJP collected ₹500 cr black money to topple Gehlot govt, alleges Maha Congress

Maharashtra Congress has alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mumbai unit collected Rs 500 crore in black money and transferred the amount through hawala for horse trading in Rajasthan in order to topple the Ashok Gehlot government.

Citing inputs received from the intelligence agencies as well as from independent sources, Maharashtra Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that the party has received specific information on the transfer of the funds.

According to Sawant, the money for the alleged hawala transaction was collected from builders and traders in Mumbai.

Pointing a finger towards Home Minister Amit Shah, Sawant said, “Mumbai is the financial capital…top brasses of the BJP sitting in Delhi asked the Mumbai unit to collect the fund. Union Ministers were involved in the operation. If you could recall, in the time of the Karnataka crisis, the same Mumbai unit was asked to collect the funds”.

Maharashtra BJP down played down the allegations but the Congress has requested state home minister Anil Deshmukh to get the alleged hawala transfer probed by the police.

“There are leaked tapes of conversation between a BJP leader and the suspended Rajasthan MLAs over the exchange of money to topple the Gehlot government. This proves that a huge amount was amassed for horse trading in Rajasthan. We received specific information from our internal sources in Maharashtra that leaders from the state unit of the BJP transferred Rs 500 crore through hawala,” Sawant said.

Sawant told NH that he spoke to state home minister Anil Deshmukh over the illegal transaction of money and demanded action.

“Deshmukh saheb told me that even he received similar information from his department. He has agreed to conduct a probe in the transfer of the funds. The BJP masterminds in Maharashtra involved in such an unethical act need to be exposed,” added Sawant.

Hitting back, Maharashtra BJP Vice-president Madhav Bhandari said if the allegations were true, why did the state government fail to stop the alleged transaction.

Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye also termed the allegations as “baseless and false”.

“Sachin Sawant is known for such meaningless accusations and has no credibility even in his own party,” said Upadhye.