Raipur, Nov 16: The Chhattisgarh BJP today accused Congress of hatching a conspiracy to tarnish the party`s image before assembly elections by levelling bribery charges against Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Dilip Singh Judeo. "I have already spoken to Judeo and he had said he had nothing to do with it. The allegation is totally baseless," state BJP chief Raman Singh told reporters here.
Singh was reacting to reports in a news daily that published a photograph of Judeo, a strong BJP chief ministerial candidate in Chhattisgarh, purportedly taking money from a man, claiming to work for an Australian mining company seeking leases in Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
"It is a conspiracy by Congress, especially its Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and his son, to tarnish BJP`s image before elections," he said.
Repeated calls to the residence of Judeo, about 400 km from here, did not bear fruit as his staff said the minister was not at home.
Union Mines Minister Ramesh Bais, a BJP MP from Raipur, said they knew before hand that Congress was hatching a conspiracy to tarnish BJP`s image.
"It is a conspiracy by Congress. We knew before hand that they are going to do something like that," he told reporters.
Referring to the computer disc purportedly showing the minister taking money, Bais said "in this high-tech age, such images can be created. We fear similar things can crop up in the coming days."
Bureau Report