Name MLA who was 'bought' by BJP: Ajay Bhatt to Rawat

Dehradun: Reacting sharply to deposed Chief Minister Harish Rawat's allegation that BJP was trying to lure away Congress MLAs by offering them bags of money, BJP in Uttarakhand today challenged him to name the legislator who had been approached and bought by the party.

Terming it as Rawat's ploy to divert people's attention from the sting CD in which he has allegedly been shown trying to buy the support of rebel Congress MLAs, Pradesh BJP president Ajay Bhatt?said "Rawat has been caught openly indulging in horsetrading in the sting CD which brought the name of Uttarakhand into disrepute. It is to divert attention from his dark deeds that he is making wild allegations against BJP to malign it."

"Rawat should tell us which MLA we tried to buy, who contacted whom and who is moving around with bags of money to buy Congress legislators. We are a party which idolises Atal Bihari Vajpayee who quit as PM when he was short of just one vote," he said.

On the other hand, there is Congress whose national leader Rahul Gandhi is with Harish Rawat in all his "dark" deeds, he alleged.

Bhatt said rebel Congress MLAs had come to BJP of their own accord as they felt suffocated under a "corrupt government."

Accusing Rawat of not being able to keep his flock together, Bhatt said he has kept his MLAs in confinement as he knows several of them will jump over to BJP.

Taking a jibe at Rawat for going to people and asking them what his guilt was, the BJP leader said it was all meant to draw the sympathy but warned him that they know his reality now and cannot be taken in.