By IANS,
Ahmedabad : The Gujarat unit of the Congress has come out with a CD showing its former legislator Bhavsinh Rathod distributing money to villagers in Patan district of the state.
“Rathod had been distributing money in Dhinaj village in Patan. He was denied the Patan Lok Sabha ticket, which made him cross over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) where the party offered him a ticket to contest from the Patan seat,” Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil told IANS.
Gohil alleged that Rathod was also found handing over cash to a local builder in Patan.
“The former legislator is trying to influence the builder lobby in Patan to contest polls,” Gohil added.
The senior leaders of the BJP in Gujarat, led by state BJP chief Purshottam Rupala, are to visit Patan Friday to pacify a section of the party workers who are refusing to campaign for Rathod. The candidate’s criminal record would work against the party’s interests in the polls, the local workers say.
Rathod quit the Congress party after he was denied a ticket for the Patan Lok Sabha seat and joined the BJP two days back. The central leadership of the BJP cleared him for the Patan seat within 24 hours of his joining the party.
However, Kaushik Patel, chief of the BJP’s poll publicity cell in Gujarat, when told about the party workers in Patan refusing to campaign for Rathod, said: “Nothing like that. All workers are ready to campaign for him (Rathod).”